Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte and political nemesis Senator Leila de Lima have found a common ground — the need to support a self-governing measure for Moros.

“I am in full support of the President’s call for the immediate passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL),” said De Lima, who has been in detention at the Senate for the last 14 months on drug-related charges.

De Lima said former Presidential Adviser on Peace Process, Secretary Teresita Deles had enlightened her on the current 2017 version of the draft BBL which she found out bears no radical departure from the original Moro self-govern version crafted in 2014 during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

The passage in the legislature of the BBL proved to be a challenge for the administration under Aquino and now, under Duterte. Both chambers eye the law with concern as conservatives apprehensive of giving more powers to the Moro minority fear that passing the BBL would embolden the latter to eventually secede.

But Duterte said the solution to this concern is to provide autonomy, not just to the Moros, but other parts of the country under the umbrella of forming a federal administration.

The BBL is the legal embodiment of the 2014 peace deal between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf) that seeks to establish an autonomous political entity for the Bangsamoro or the Muslim Moro nation.

During the press conference in Davao City on Sunday, Duterte related his continuing commitment to the cause of the Bangamoro in establishing a government attuned to their aspirations.

“We continue to talk and I hope that Congress would expedite its approval” and warned “If we do not act on it expeditiously, I think that we are headed for a trouble.”

Duterte also said the BBL and eventually federalism, would be an antidote to the growing threat of Islamic extremism in the country.

Last month, the government was able to defeat the Daesh-backed Maute-Abu Sayyaf which threatened to occupy Marawi City and establish a Muslim fundamentalist “caliphate in Southeast Asia.”

The threat was neutralised at a cost of nearly a thousand lives and the destruction of large swathes of Marawi City from aerial and artillery bombardment as well as clashes by ground troops.

Duterte said the ball on the BBL rests entirely on the hands of the legislature now.

“The enactment of the BBL is the sole responsibility of the government, particularly the Philippine Congress,” he said.

De Lima said she is willing to help the Duterte administration on this matter.

“While not a perfect piece of document, the draft BBL represents a huge and monumental first step at addressing, in very concrete terms, the long-standing aspirations of our Muslim brothers and sisters. Their core aspiration is of course genuine autonomy and meaningful self-governance.

In my view, only some tweaking or fine tuning of a few provisions is needed so as to hurdle any constitutional challenge to this special piece of legislative measure,” she said.

She said Congress cannot afford to miss this yet another big shot at peace and stability in the region. “The urgency in actualising the proposed changes in the governmental, political, fiscal and justice structures for the Bangsamoro people, to supplant the discarded, deficient Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao set-up, is most felt now, hence, imperative, given the lingering and worsening threats of terrorism and extremism in the area,” she said.