House body scraps BBL coordination provision

MANILA, Philippines - The House ad hoc committee on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) has removed provisions regarding coordination with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and other protocols on police and military operations, effectively restoring certain constitutional powers of the government.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the 75-member panel, expressed hope that the major amendments will make the BBL conform with the Constitution and help soften public opposition to the bill.

The committee suspended last month deliberations on the BBL following the death of 44 police commandos during an encounter with Muslim rebels after an operation to arrest two wanted international terrorists in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.

The members of the police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos killed Malaysia bomb maker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, but his Filipino cohort Basit Usman escaped.

SAF troopers later encountered Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups that resulted in the killing of the policemen, 18 rebels and several civilians.

The passage of the BBL, which seeks to create a new autonomous region in Mindanao, was committed by President Aquino to the MILF when the government and the rebel group signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in March last year.

“We can assure the public that we’ll not have an unconstitutional BBL, we’ll really sanitize and cleanse the bill,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve removed proposals to give the chief minister full control over the police and military, which cannot be subject to any coordination or protocols.

“The national government shall continue to have absolute control over the armed forces and the police,” he said.

He said under the BBL as proposed by Malacañang, the deployment of troops of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces will be subject to certain protocols, including coordination with the chief minister of the parliamentary government of the new autonomous government.

The draft also proposed the autonomous government will depend on the Armed Forces when it comes only to external defense.

Rodriguez said such provisions were tantamount to dividing the powers of the national government or the commander-in-chief with the autonomous entity that is contrary to the Constitution.

“The defense and security of the entire country and the Bangsamoro region shall be under the responsibility of the national government. There should be no sharing of powers and the commander-in-chief shall have free and full rein over government forces,” Rodriguez said.

The MILF had blamed the government for failing to coordinate its operation to get Marwan and Usman that led to the bloody encounter.

The coordination with the MILF of law enforcement operations is part of the ceasefire agreement, according to government peace negotiators.

The PNP, however, maintained that there was no need for any coordination as it was a legitimate law enforcement operation, even as it cited reports that the MILF was harboring Marwan and Usman.

Rodriguez said there was no need for any coordination or similar protocols since under the BBL, the MILF should have decommissioned and disarmed its guerrillas when the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous region is put in place.

He said the new autonomous region will depend on the national government for its security.

The lawmaker also said the panel has restored the government’s reserved powers from nine to 14 in the process of scrapping certain provisions in the BBL.

The provisions excised from the BBL are those creating separate Commission on Audit (COA), Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the proposed autonomous region.

He said the COA, CSC and Comelec should continue to have power and jurisdiction over the envisioned Bangsamoro autonomous region.

Rodriguez said the ad hoc committee would also delete from the BBL the provision that removes jurisdiction of the Office of the Ombudsman over officials of the Bangsamoro.

The provision that allows 10 percent of the population of contiguous areas or adjacent territories to seek inclusion in the autonomous region will likely be scrapped as the section may cause instability, he said.

The House panel is expected to resume deliberations on the BBL on April 20 and aims to put it to a vote on May 11.

Aquino earlier prodded lawmakers to pass the BBL by June.

Vice President Jejomar Binay urged yesterday the government to let the next administration pass the BBL in the face of overwhelming public opposition to it.

A latest Pulse Asia survey, taken from March 1 to 7, showed that 44 percent of Filipinos are against passage of the BBL.

The Vice President said the death of 44 SAF members in Mamasapano exposed the flaws and legal infirmities of the proposed law.

“The great sacrifice in lives of our 44 SAF heroes has pushed to front and center of public attention the constitutional defects of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, putting on hold its rushed congressional approval and bringing it to sober public scrutiny,” Binay said in his speech at the 15th national convention of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in Cebu City.

“I have said so before: let us not insist on a hasty and precipitate approval of the BBL if it fails to pass in this administration, then let the next handle it and handle it firmly and well, with the Constitution and the welfare of the Filipino nation foremost in mind – in 2016,” he said.

Binay had asked Congress not to rush passage of the measure as it must be thoroughly studied first, specifically the provisions on the sharing of natural resources.

Peace panel head hit anew

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano continued his criticism of the government peace panel headed by Miriam Coronel-Ferrer for her latest statements regarding the need to keep the MILF in the peace process.

In a briefing held in Taguig City yesterday, Cayetano said that Ferrer’s arguments about the need to keep the commitment of the MILF to achieve peace with the government were “irresponsible, desperate and ridiculous.”

Cayetano was referring to Ferrer’s interview over radio dzMM where she took a shot at critics of the proposed BBL and the MILF for coming out with statements not helpful in achieving peace in Mindanao.

Ferrer cited as an example the questions about the citizenship of MILF chairman Al Haj Murad and the rebels’ chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, specifically the claims that they were Malaysians and not Filipinos.–With Helen Flores, Jose Rodel Clapano, Edu Punay, Jaime Laude, Marvin Sy, Mitchelle Palaubsanon