Bangsamoro Basic Law a work in progress – Palace

MANILA, Philippines - The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law is a work in progress with President Aquino ensuring the process will be dynamic and consultative to allow all issues to be addressed, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Aquino has given assurances that he would not let anything get in the way of the peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but this did not mean the government side would be imposing or heavy-handed.

Coloma said the Office of the Executive Secretary received the working draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which “is something that can be supplemented and can be modified until it is finalized.”

Coloma made the statement as MILF chief negotiator and Bangsamoro Transition Commission chairman Mohagher Iqbal admitted the partial draft had yet to incorporate details on the 156-page recommendation of the Independent Commission on Policing for the structure of the police force for the Bangsamoro; automatic block grants; special development fund and Bangsamoro waters.

A separate document on provisions that will need constitutional amendments is also said to be submitted to the Office of the President for review.

Coloma said the draft would be reviewed by the legal staff of the Office of the President, including the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs, Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and even the Office of the Solicitor General.

Timeline

“There is a sense of urgency in being able to complete this review because we are all aware of the indicative timetable. The target is to be able to submit an enacted Bangsamoro Basic Law to the people of the affected areas by 2014, so that there can be sufficient preparations for the conduct of elections for officials that will regularly administer the Bangsamoro political entity,” Coloma said.

He said they are hoping that the Bangsamoro elections can take place simultaneously with the 2016 national elections.

“We are all guided by that indicative timetable, so all those concerned are acting with a sense of urgency,” he added.

Coloma said the Commission on Elections was expected to prepare for the conduct of the plebiscite.

Coloma said he did not have the details of the supposed provisions that were lacking and would still have to be submitted.

“Even if we knew it, what is most material and what is most important, I believe, is that the legal team will be able to do everything that is necessary to be able to submit the draft bill to the President for his own review and approval,” he said.

Amid these challenges, Coloma said it must be pointed out that the draft bill the President would review and certify as urgent to Congress was a joint effort from the very beginning.

“Both sides are doing what is necessary with the sense of urgency to be able to complete the task at hand within the indicative timetable,” he said.

Coloma expressed belief the government and the MILF were on track and that throughout the entire process both panels exercised the requisite due diligence, industry and determination to complete the agreement “in order to bring it to where it is now.”

“So I think we can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that there is reason to be optimistic that the timetable can be met,” he said.

Even throughout the process of crafting the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, Coloma said there was close coordination on both sides to hammer out the accord.

That meant there was willingness on both sides to receive inputs from each other, he said.

And even while the agreement was being negotiated, Coloma said the Philippine panel was consulting regularly with the same panel now reviewing the draft law.

“So we can be assured that the people that are doing the reviewing are quite familiar with the agreement, and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission would have referred extensively to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro itself. The CAB is certainly a very substantial input into the crafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Even while one annex was being finalized, the other annexes that had been completed were already being studied in terms of how to translate the provisions of these completed annexes into the proposed law,” Coloma said.

Coloma said in all aspects of the process, there were building blocks and that they were building on earlier agreements to complete the CAB and the draft law.

The approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law sets the stage for the second phase of the peace process with the MILF to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and a plebiscite afterwards to determine which towns or provinces would be under its control.

The first phase was last month’s signing of the peace agreement between the government and the MILF, which aims to end more than four decades of armed conflict in Mindanao.

Coloma said the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) “presented” before Undersecretary Mike Musngi a “working draft” of the proposed law for its “initial review and evaluation.”

On proposals to amend the Constitution, Iqbal said the BTC agreed to submit a separate document for provisions that would require constitutional amendments.

Under the final peace pact and Executive Order 120, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission is allowed to recommend amendments to the 1987 Constitution “whenever necessary.”

Coloma said the administration would endeavor to submit a draft law that would be upheld should its constitutionality be questioned.

Malacañang earlier said it was hoping to finish evaluating the draft law by the resumption of Congress’ session in May.

No compromise

A senior administration lawmaker said Congress will not allow the passage of any unconstitutional provision in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, even as the House of Representatives is making preparations to scrutinize the document and ensure its timely passage.

While lawmakers are gearing up to question the proposed law once Malacañang submits it to the House, Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, chairman of the committee on Mindanao affairs, said they may resolve the issues through amendments.

Loong believes there will not be too many constitutional questions on the proposed statute as the government negotiating panel based its parameters on the Constitution.

“I think they’re the experts, but we’ll know. If upon our final scrutiny of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, if there’s anything unconstitutional, the House will do something to modify it,” Loong said, referring to the government peace panel.

“This is a political problem, the peace agreement is trying to arrive at a political solution through this proposed law, so we should also use the maximum flexibility allowed by the Constitution if that is the solution,” he said.

Basilan Rep. Jim Hataman-Salliman, chairman of the House special committee on peace, reconciliation and unity, said many lawmakers have sought assurance from the Bangsamoro Transition Commission to make sure there will be no unconstitutional provisions.

Salliman said the House is anticipating the filing of the document when Congress resumes session next month so the chamber could at least organize and make other arrangements and preparations.

He said Congress is working on a tight schedule with the aim of having the Bangsamoro Transition Authority in place by January 2015, assuming the proposed law – which will lay the foundation of the new autonomous region – is approved in the plebiscite, and is not derailed by questions before the Supreme Court.

By 2016, election of officials of the new Bangsamoro autonomous government will be held to coincide with the national and local polls.

What about us?

A coalition of tribal groups referred to as Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao is questioning the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro which it claimed excluded the law protecting tribal groups.

While affirming their unwavering support for the peace process in Mindanao, the tribal group is seeking an audience with President Aquino in questioning why the peace agreement excluded Republic Act 8371, also known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act that protects and guarantee the rights of the indigenous people in Mindanao.

“As early as 2005, we have been consistently sending our position papers and written agenda, identifying ourselves as a historically distinct people within the Bangsamoro territory. We have consistently done this during the early stage of the peace negotiations and well into the recent drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission to clarify our position in the peace talks,” the tribal groups said in an open letter to the President.

The tribal groups are composed of the Timuays, Datus, Fintailans, Baes of the Teduray, Lambangian, Dulangan Manobo, Erumanen de Manuvu, and Obo Manobo tribesmen.

While the framework and the final agreements may have answered consensus points for the Moro peoples, four crucial issues were raised which they wanted the President to answer and resolve.

The crucial concerns include the exclusion of RA 8371 from the provisions of the peace agreement; their rights as distinct people to govern their own territory; the competing and contradictory policy over land and ancestral domains and can government lead the way to finally overcome the problems in the region.

“We believe the real essence of the rights to self-determination will never be solely determined by peace negotiations, but by living it out in the daily grind of surviving poverty and facing risk and danger altogether,” they said.

“We, the Indigenous Peoples in the core and adjacent areas of the Bangsamoro, have considered you a kefeduwan (indigenous peacemaker) in the making. We all dream of the day you will come over to our villages as a full-fledged kefeduwan and when that happens, we can say that peace is really at hand. A genuine peace for all.”

The group assured the President of full support in his efforts to reach a just and sustainable peace in the Bangsamoro region. – With Paolo Romero, Jaime Laude