PDP-Laban Rep. Bai Sandra Sinsuat Sema of Maguindanao grew up in an atmosphere of fear.
As a little girl during the imposition of martial law in the 1970s, people sought shelter in the house of her grandfather, a Muslim royalty. One of her most horrific experiences was the Malisbong Massacre in Sultan Kudarat in 1974, where some 1,500 males were killed in a mosque by Army troops. Women were raped and hundreds of houses were razed to the ground.
Sema shudders at the memory and envisions a future of peace.
As the first Muslim woman to be named deputy speaker, she vowed to uphold the rights of her people.
Bai Sandra, who is on her third term as representative of the First District of Maguindanao, will refile the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) bill as her commitment for peace.
She explained that the BBL aims to create the Bangsamoro administration that reflects the culture and values of the Muslims in the Philippines.
It will take the place of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The law is based on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that was forged in 2014. It implies that the proposed Bangsamoro will look after its resources, its people and the return to civilian life of the MILF and disband private armies.
She recalled that when then-President Fidel V. Ramos signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996, it resulted in the creation of the ARMM.
However, violence between government forces and rebel groups continued as the MILF refused to respect the agreement.
Sema called for public information on the positive side of the BBL.
Politics runs in the blood of Bai Sandra. Her great-grandfather, Datu Sinsuat Balabaran, who was elected to the Senate in 1935, was the first senator from Maguindanao. His son, Datu Blah Sinsuat, was speaker protempore of the former Batasang Pambansa.
Her husband Muslimin Sema, who was secretary-general of the MNLF, was part of the team who signed the peace agreement with Ramos and became the executive secretary of ARMM in 1996.
During the Ramos administration, Bai Sandra was named secretary of the then-Department of Education, Culture and Sports of the ARMM and was later appointed education undersecretary under Raul Roco in 2001, by then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Image credits: PNA