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Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim warned on Tuesday the fight against violent extremism could not be won in Mindanao if Congress would again fail to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

In a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), Murad said that despite the defeat of the Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists in Marawi City, the entry of foreign terrorists in Mindanao continues as a Canadian-Arab Muslim was sighted in Sulu province recently.

"The fight against violent extremism in the homeland is real. As the battlefields in the Middle East are cleared, and the bases of ISIS are constricted, we will increasingly find them in our midst as they seek new strategic ground where the hold of government is weak, such as in Mindanao," he said.

He noted that last year alone, in the MILF's effort to control the faction of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a breakaway group of the MILF, they lost 24 men in their drive to defend their communities in Liguasan Marsh.

"We know we cannot decisively win the war against extremism if we cannot win the peace in the halls of Congress. The peace agreement must be implemented and the BBL must be passed so that we can then show a concrete and demonstrable result of the peace process that we have engaged in in the last 18 years of our struggle," Murad said.

The proposed BBL has been pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Despite the backing of then President Benigno Aquino III, the proposed measure failed to pass Congress.

The Duterte administration revived the bill that was prepared again by the expanded MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

Murad hoped the bill could pass Congress by next month so the plebiscite in areas to be included in the proposed Bangsamoro region could be held with the barangay elections in May.

If this could happen, the new Bangsamoro government could commence by 2019.

He noted that in the long years of the MILF struggle, many "challenges" have been faced due to the result of "repeated failures of government to implement the peace agreement."

He recalled that failure to implement the Tripoli Agreement in 1976 resulted the split of the Moro National Liberation Front and the rise of the MILF.

The failure to implement the 1996 Final Peace Agreement resulted in the birth of the Abu Sayyaf Group and failure to sign the 2008 Memorandum Agreement on Ancestral Domain gave rise to the BIFF, he said.

"Our failure to pass the BBL in 2015-2016 led to the birth of the now infamous Maute Group that ultimately led the Marawi siege," Murad said.

He said the extremists have been using the failure of the peace process to recruit the youths in Mindanao.

"While it is clear that the ISIS do not care about our national liberation agenda as they are in pursuit of jihad on global scale or everywhere, the frustration and resentment of the people especially the young over the apparent failure to implement signed peace agreements is blinding them from discerning the real motives of these extremists," he explained.

Murad said entry of foreign jihadists in Mindanao continues.

"We see that the coming in of the extremists, either individual or group, is continuing. They are coming in from the porous borders in the South," he said.

Aside from Malaysian and Indonesian terrorists, he said, "we also observe that there are some Middle Eastern people coming in and we just received report there even a Canadian-Arab Muslim who came in just recently."

He said the Canadian-Arab, who is not more than 25 years old, went to Patikul, Sulu last month.

Murad said they shared the information about the presence of the suspected foreign terrorist to the government through the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group.

The AHJAG is a joint effort of the Philippine government and the MILF that seeks to interdict and isolate lawless elements that take refuge in or near MILF communities. Celerina Monte/DMS