Lawmakers: Bangsamoro law can’t be passed as is

MANILA, Philippines - Lawmakers are ready to defy President Aquino’s wish that they leave the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) untouched or with only minor changes.

While assuring the Palace that the BBL would not be diluted, Senate President Franklin Drilon said there is no way the Senate would leave the measure untouched after going over it.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is negotiating peace with the government, also wants Congress to pass the BBL hook, line and sinker.

“We will examine it closely and modify the provisions which we believe are not consistent with the Constitution,” Drilon told reporters yesterday.

“That is what we will do. I don’t think dilution is the correct term but we have to modify and look at each provision carefully,” he said.

“It will not be passed untouched. And I think that the MILF recognizes that. The elected representatives have their own inputs and views and we will consider them all,” he added.

At the House of Representatives, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez stressed the BBL in its current form would likely be rejected if put to a vote. Rodriguez heads the 75-member ad hoc committee working on the chamber’s version of the BBL.

“I think it will not pass as drafted and presented to our committee, with all its constitutionally questionable provisions,” Rodriguez said.

Drilon emphasized that Congress is an independent institution whose members, being elected representatives, decide on their own and cannot be dictated upon by anyone.

He said it is within the powers of Congress to scrutinize the proposed BBL and come out with the necessary amendments to make the measure compliant with the provisions of the Constitution.

Sen. Francis Escudero said the deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos at the hands of MILF guerrillas in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25 had underpinned the need for a closer look at the BBL.

He said the MILF or the government peace panel should not insist on leaving the BBL as it is.

“With the Mamasapano clash, we were given a better perspective. In a sense, the SAF 44 should be thanked because if that did not take place then it (BBL) might have been passed without much scrutiny,” Escudero said.

He noted for instance that in the BBL, the word coordinate or coordination was mentioned at least 26 times. He said this is something he finds worrisome in the light of what happened in Mamasapano.

The MILF has repeatedly blamed the SAF’s failure to coordinate its operation to arrest Malaysian terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Filipino Basit Usman for the bloody encounter in Mamasapano.

Justifying murder

Escudero said that in its position, the MILF appears to justify hostile action against government forces engaging in anti-terror or anti-crime operations in rebel-controlled areas.

“So what happens if the BBL is taken up to the Supreme Court and it is declared unconstitutional? Do we go back to war?” he said.

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito also said he is against keeping the BBL in its present form, just for the sake of the peace process.

“The peace effort and the BBL are two different subjects. There is no proof that after the passage of BBL, we would attain lasting peace in Mindanao,” he said.

“We have to realize that aside from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, there are the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Abu Sayyaf and numerous private armed groups,” Ejercito said.

“These exclude the growing numbers of New People’s Army in Mindanao. For all we know, the BBL might suffer the same fate as our peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front. I believe that the peace effort and the BBL should not be taken as buy one, take one,” he added.

At the House, Rodriguez’s panel is expected to reconvene next week to discuss the BBL after suspending hearings on the measure in the aftermath of the Mamasapano tragedy. A group composed of representatives from the government and the MILF drafted the proposed BBL.

In his meeting with a group of about 30 House leaders and members on Monday, President Aquino appealed to them not to dilute the draft bill too much.

He expressed apprehension that a diluted or watered down BBL won’t be acceptable to the MILF and won’t solve the peace problem in Mindanao.

In a letter to Rodriguez last Dec. 29, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim said his organization trusts “that Congress will pass the mutually agreed BBL draft with no changes and without diminishing, diluting or watering down its provisions, except probably for minor changes or changes that clearly improve it or enhance it.”

He repeatedly reiterated in his letter his group’s desire that the BBL “draft” or “text” be kept. He emphasized that the draft was “mutually agreed” upon by the government and the MILF.

“We appeal to Congress to do its part in fulfilling the commitment of the Philippine government and the MILF to a politically negotiated settlement of the Moro grievances by passing the mutually agreed BBL draft without watering down its provisions, as feared by many of our constituencies in the Bangsamoro,” he said.

The highest-ranking MILF leader indicated in his letter that Aquino has had the power to compel Congress and the Supreme Court to act favorably on the BBL.

In entering the peace process, he said the MILF had the “understanding that it was negotiating with the totality of the Philippine government or ‘whole government,’ especially since, among other reasons, the commander-in-chief powers of the President allow him to bind the whole of government, including its different branches.”

Armed for the polls?

Aside from at least five provisions in the draft BBL that Rodriguez and his panel consider as unconstitutional, there are other concerns that committee members wanted addressed in the proposed law.

“There are unconstitutional and questionable arrangements in the BBL draft that we want to remove,” Rep. Ashley Acedillo of party-list group Magdalo said.

“For instance, under the peace agreement, only 35 percent of MILF’s firearms will be surrendered to the government before the plebiscite and the election of new regional officials. This means that the MILF will still be 65 percent an armed revolutionary group when the elections are held,” he said.

Since the MILF is now organizing a political party, Acedillo – a former military officer – said no Mindanao politician would dare contest the candidacy of armed MILF members.

“They should give up their arms 100 percent before the elections,” he added.

Acedillo also said he and four other former police and military officers-turned-congressmen have information that the MILF and its breakaway faction BIFF have been conducting joint training exercises.

“They are not supposed to do that while the peace process is ongoing. Isn’t that bad faith? They are taking advantage of the sincerity of the government in going through the peace process,” he said.

He pointed out that another provision that they want clarified is the one empowering the envisioned Bangsamoro regional government to procure supplies for its own police force.

“What supplies will they procure? Will they be allowed to buy heavy armaments like recoilless rifles? Will they be allowed to buy armored vehicles? I think that if they will be given that authority, they will be able to build a peer force that can match the capability of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). We should not allow that to happen,” he said.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, who chairs the House defense committee, wants provisions that would “fragment” the authority of the President excised from the proposed BBL.

He said under the draft BBL, the President is required to coordinate with the chief minister of the Bangsamoro regional government whenever security forces conduct operations in the region.

“That would be fragmenting and weakening the authority of the President, which is unconstitutional,” he said.