By Ahmet Furkan Mercan
(AA): The official flag of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao was adopted Friday following a historic referendum that shaped the future of Moro Muslims living in the southern Philippines.
According to Lanang Ali, a member of the Bangsamoro Parliament, 36 of its 60 members voted “yes”, one “no” and there were five abstentions.
“Alhamdulillah, Parliament Bill No. 7 entitled ‘An Act Adopting an Official Flag of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’ has already been approved on its third and final reading by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority,” Ali wrote on Facebook.
The Bangsamoro Transition Authority is the interim regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
Ali also shared a photo of the newly adopted flag, which consists of a star and crescent and a sword on white, red and green horizontal stripes.
Muslim Mindanao has always been the name of the region – before Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; now, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. It’s descriptive – the part of Mindanao that remains predominantly Muslim. As in the rest of the Philippines, the rest of Mindanao is now predominantly Christian.
Bangsamoro Muslims, long deprived of freedom under Spain, the U.S. and the modern Philippine state, were granted autonomy under a historic plebiscite held on Jan. 21 and Feb. 6 in southern Mindanao.
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Photo: A view of people in the capital of Bangsamoro, Cotabato, Philippines. on August 19, 2019. Photographer: Kaan Bozdoğan/AA]