The Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which went through the crucial vote yesterday, is far from perfect but President Rody Duterte knows that it will make or break the aspired for peace in Mindanao.

“The IS malignancy remains in several portions of Mindanao, which Rody believes can be controlled if not stopped with the help of self-determination granted to the Moro people.

The catastrophic Marawi City siege of Islamic State (IS) militants in 2017 resulted from the poor handling of the threat by the amateurish former President Noynoy Aquino who dismissed the IS problem as its focus was on striking a peace deal solely with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Rody had insisted on the consultation of all Moro tribes and sectors in coming up with the BOL that he considered as a work in progress which Congress can review.

For instance, he wanted to draw in Moro National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari into the pact and negotiations will likely be made soon on what the MNLF claims was an unfinished Tripoli agreement.

Noynoy and his administration, similar to his disconnect with the whole nation, had a poor appreciation of the problem in Mindanao.

In a speech in 13 November 2014, for instance, Noynoy said the IS threat did not need a military solution.

“You cannot find a military solution to this problem – this idea (or belief) by some sectors that they are dispossessed, disenfranchised, without opportunities, and are trapped in a situation where their hopelessness translates into going after some sort of extreme belief – which is being espoused by the IS,” Noynoy said during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Myanmar.

Yet Noynoy knew then of the shifting alliances among members of different Islamic groups that is being heavily influenced by extremists overseas.

“If they are part of an existing group, there is the bigger chance that they will be identified, that they can be stopped prior to the commission of any terror act, because they are known by the intelligence. When you spot one member, chances are you will be able to reconnoiter the other members,” Noynoy then said.

The IS footprint became visible in Southeast Asia, particularly Mindanao, during Noynoy’s term.

Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based counter-terrorism expert and head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said that the government’s failure to take concrete steps at that time led to the extremist’s advance in the country.

“Had the Philippines acknowledged the emergence of IS as far back as the second half of 2014, the IS capture of Marawi could have been prevented,” Gunaratna said.

The Turkish Radio and Television Corp. said in a report that Rody was quick to take action against the radical militants.

“He placed Mindanao under martial law, which was followed by a full throttle ground and aerial assault to reestablish full control of the island,” it added.

A Straits Times report also stated that Malaysians freely set up terror cells during his term.

The report identified three Malaysians who went on a six-day mission to Mindanao to set up an IS-linked network in 2014 and never returned home.

According to the report, the Malaysians flew to Mindanao in April 2014 to conduct military training and bomb-making to militants who would later be sent to Syria to join the IS campaign there.

The terror threat is over for now in Marawi City, but the IS malignancy remains in several portions of Mindanao, which Rody believes can be controlled if not stopped with the help of self-determination granted to the Moro people which he correctly termed as “historical justice.”

The most crucial factor that makes peace in Mindanao possible more than in any other administration is the trust that the Moros have accorded Rody.