Only a few provisions of Bangsamoro Basic Law need review – Palace

MANILA, Philippines - Up to 80 percent of the provisions in the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) had been approved by the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace negotiating panels, Malacañang said yesterday.

This developed as the Palace expressed confidence that the bill replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao would be passed on time.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters they were hoping to submit the draft BBL to Congress within the month after President Aquino had reviewed it.

“The President has seen the submitted draft. So he is going through it. As to specific timelines between now and the submission to (Congress), the President has to study it again,” Lacierda said.

“More than 70 (to 80) percent have been agreed upon so we are looking at a few provisions that would still need the President’s observation. Certainly, the President knows the importance of this agreement and we are all waiting for it to be submitted to Congress,” Lacierda said.

He said he had not seen the documents himself but noted that the remaining 20 to 30 percent should no longer derail the process of coming up with the law.

“This was in close collaboration with both chairs and Executive Secretary Ochoa was also there. He spoke to (MILF chief negotiator Mohagher) Iqbal,” Lacierda said.

Both parties recognized the importance of having the draft BBL passed on time and the MILF was also very optimistic about the remaining segment that needed to be finished.

He said the Palace legal team, along with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and chief government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, would assist in reviewing the draft.

He said the panels would defer to the President for one final review of the draft.

Secretary Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, said the submission on Wednesday night was witnessed by Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Benjamin Caguioa and Assistant Executive Secretary Mike Musngi.

Deles said they would wait for the President’s further guidance on the matter.

In a news release on luwaran.net, the MILF noted that “the two parties are also in the same level of understanding that an agreed version of the BBL was the only way that would strengthen their partnership in jointly pushing for the early passage of the bill in Congress.”

Iqbal, Bangsamoro Transition Commission chairman, in a letter accompanying the BBL submission, also committed to “adhere to our understanding to work on the final text of the proposed BBL after its review by the President.”

With this, Deles said she was “confident that a mutually acceptable bill will be filed in Congress as a true demonstration of the parties’ firm partnership for peace.”

The draft BBL is expected to be submitted to Congress upon instructions of the President.

“We will await his signal. We are all aware it is an urgent matter,” she said.

Special committee

The House of Representatives is set to organize a special committee that will deliberate on the draft BBL.

Basilan Rep. Jim Hataman-Salliman, chairman of the committee on peace, reconciliation and unity, said as soon as the BBL is formally submitted to the House for approval, a motion will be proposed in plenary to form a special panel.

The motion will include the nomination of members of the ad hoc panel, which will likely be composed of concerned House committees, including his.

The lawmaker said the committees on Mindanao affairs, Muslim affairs, local government and revision of laws would likely be included in the ad hoc panel.

The chairpersons of these committees will likely be voted to be vice chairpersons of the ad hoc panel, he said, adding that Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, president of the Centrist Democratic Party and a known constitutional expert, is being pushed to be chairman.

“The President indicated that he will certify it as urgent, and Speaker (Feliciano) Belmonte said this is a top priority of the House, so hopefully we can work on this and pass it in the next few months,” Hataman-Salliman told The STAR.

He said the House is preoccupied with deliberating on the proposed P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015 but public hearings on the BBL can still be conducted simultaneously by the committee.

Trials and tribulations

The MILF, for its part, is expecting the BBL to be questioned before the Supreme Court and to face “trials and tribulations” while it is being deliberated upon by decision-makers.

The group, however, said it is unfazed by the challenges awaiting the draft law, which will implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

“Today, the real happening is in the Office of the President where the proposed BBL is under scrutiny; after which the battle will shift to Congress, then to the conduct of the plebiscite in which people will approve (or disapprove) of the BBL,” MILF said in an editorial posted on its website luwaran.com.

“That is not the end of the trials and tribulations. It is almost certain that people or groups will question the constitutionality of the BBL before the Supreme Court. All of these scenarios are risk-laden, but the MILF is not cowed at all,” it said. – With Paolo Romero, Alexis Romero