BBL Summit and Mindanao History Exhibit
21 May 2018, Finster Auditorium, 7th Floor, Finster Hall
Bangsamoro is about the development of people, not about the constitutionality of words. The core principles of the 1987 Constitution in mandating a special status for the autonomous regions is the human development of the people of Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras. Hence, the public conversations should not be about semantics but about people—their needs, their aspirations, their choices—about empowering them with the environment and institutional framework for social justice.
Statement of the surviving Framers of the 1987 Constitution
9 June 2015
PRESS RELEASE:
Ateneo Holds BBL Summit and Mindanao History Exhibit
The Ateneo de Davao University is proud to host the #BBLnatin Summit and Exhibit: “Our BBL for Peace” this Monday, 21 May 2018, at the Finster Auditorium at the 7th Floor of the Finster Hall and on the grounds of the Rodriguez Hall, respectively. These events are designed to help in the push for the immediate passage and implementation of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), one of the main advocacies of the University. This is also a concrete step taken by the University in accordance with its agreement with the other Ateneo schools also calling for the passage of the BBL.
Held in the morning of 21 May, the #BBLnatin Summit gathers together in the University a considerable number of the Muslim and Lumad tribal and community leaders from all over the Bangsamoro region. A number of pertinent stakeholders and resource persons also join the summit to inform the attendees about the nature of the BBL and of its possible benefits to their communities. They would also inform the community chiefs of the potential of the law to grant them their right to self-determination denied them by decades of historical and social injustices.
Following the Summit is the historical exhibit on Mindanao-Sulu, held at the grounds of the Rodriguez Hall, on the 1st Floor of the Community Center of the First Companions, Jacinto campus. The exhibit features photos, some cultural items, and facts about the Mindanao-Sulu areas, reaching back from prehistory to the precolonial era to the present. The contents of the exhibit are lifted from the Mindanao-Sulu timeline prepared by the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) in 2017. The exhibit is also accompanied by live musical performances around the same venue, and a #BBL video presentation and light show projected on the Community Center façade. Admission is free.
There will also be a community Iftar to be offered for the BBL Summit participants as well as all other Muslims in attendance. The University community joins our Muslim sisters and brothers in breaking their fast for the day, in observance of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Ateneo de Davao University is once again enormously pleased to join the call to pass and implement the BBL as soon as possible. The Filipino people owe a great historical debt to the Moro people and the Lumad, and now is the time for us to finally fulfill our promises of reparations to them. By hosting these events, the University also hopes to enlighten the general public on the oft-neglected culture of the Moros and the Lumads of Mindanao, and on the great need to give them the historical justice they have long deserved.
The #BBLnatin Summit and Exhibit: “Our BBL for Peace” is an initiative of the Ateneo de Davao University, planned and executed through its constituent offices: the University Community Engagement and Advocacy Office (UCEAC), the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), the office of the Assistant to the President for Community Center and Martin Hall Operations, and the Institutional Communications and Promotions Office (ICOMMP); as well as the student government SAMAHAN, and the Al Qalam Institute.
The #BBLnatin Summit
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Finster Auditorium, 7th Floor, Finster Hall
9:00 am : Summit proper: Invited Muslim and Lumad community and tribal leaders will engage in fruitful and meaningful dialogue with the resource persons who will explain to them the salient aspects of the BBL
11:00 am : Press conference with local and national media with the community and tribal leaders, along with the resource persons, invited to the BBL Summit
11:00 am : Lunch (except for the Muslims present)
1:30 pm : Summit proper continuation
The Mindanao History Exhibit
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Rodriguez Hall, 1st Floor, Community Center of the First Companions, Jacinto campus
5:00 pm : Ribbon-cutting and opening of the Mindanao History exhibit
6:00 pm : Live musical performances from local artists, a #BBLnatin video presentation and light show, to be projected on the façade of the Community Center
6:30 PM: Community Iftar with the BBL Summit Participants—this is to display the unity between the University community and the Moro people and the Lumad as we call for the expeditious passage of the BBL