An Act Establishing a Bangsamoro Memorial Marker and Eco-Park in Camp Abubakar, Municipality of Barira, Maguindanao to Honor the Shuhada/martyrs of the Bangsamoro Struggle Who Gave and Sacrificed Their Lives for the Right to Self-Determination and Freedom of the Bangsamoro, Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes

This is the cabinet's bill for a memorial to the dead of the Bangsamoro struggle, sited at Camp Abubakar in Barira.

The marker itself is defined in one sentence: it carries a list of the names of the shuhada who were martyred as a result of their service in the protracted war for the right to self-determination and freedom of the Bangsamoro people. It stands inside a park, and the park gets the longer treatment — constructed, properly landscaped, and designed with structures and ornaments reflective of Bangsamoro culture and art, with a multi-purpose hall, parking, comfort rooms and wash areas, and access roads.

The body that builds it is a Bangsamoro Memorial Council: the chairperson of the Bangsamoro Commission for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, plus 5 provincial focal persons appointed by the Chief Minister, one each for Maguindanao including Cotabato City and the 63 barangays, Lanao del Sur, Basilan including Lamitan City, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. The Council sets the eligibility criteria for whose names go on the marker, submits the final list to the Office of the Chief Minister, and monitors construction against its own standards and designs. When the marker and park are finished and turned over to the heritage commission, the Council dissolves automatically and its members are discharged.

Maintenance afterwards falls to the heritage commission, and the heritage commission has 90 days from effectivity to issue implementing rules.

The explanatory note is signed by the Chief Minister and argues from obligation rather than policy. The Bangsamoro Government is a product of almost 5 decades of armed struggle and peace negotiations; many shed their sweat, blood, tears and even their lives for the right to self-determination. The shuhada should not only be written in history books, and remembrance should not be limited to memoirs, holidays or speeches.

The note is explicit that a marker cannot hold what it commemorates — "while the creation of a memorial marker will not be able to encapsulate the sacrifice of our shuhada, it is a way for us to immortalize this distinct part of our history" — and it closes on a sentence that is unusual in a legislative document: "We cannot let our people down."

The bill's hardest question is the one it hands to somebody else. Who counts as shuhada decides whose family is recognised by the region and whose is not, and the bill answers it in a single clause — martyred as a result of their service in the protracted war — and then assigns the eligibility criteria to a council it creates for the purpose. The enacted act widened the definition rather than narrowing it: BAA 61 covers those who gave and devoted their lives "directly or indirectly", which takes in people who were not combatants.

The council changed shape between filing and enactment, and the direction of the change is consistent. This bill seats 6 people, 5 of them provincial appointees of the Chief Minister. BAA 61 replaced that with a Memorial Management Board seating the public works, trade and tourism, education and environment ministries, the Darul-Ifta’, the local government of Barira, and a representative from every province — and added 2 obligations this bill does not carry: a functioning grievance mechanism, and a duty to consult and actively involve local communities. Given that the contested question is whose names appear, a grievance mechanism is the provision that matters most, and it was not in the bill.

Two smaller things. The bill places Camp Abubakar in "Maguindanao"; by the time the act was ratified in August 2024 the province had been split, and the enacted title reads Maguindanao del Norte. And the park specification gained a children's playground somewhere between the filed copy and the law — which is a small decision about whether the site is a place of mourning or a place people bring their families.