Biazon: BBL passage by March unlikely

MANILA, Philippines - Congress is not likely to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) before it adjourns sessions next month because of questions surrounding the clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao that left 44 police commandos dead last January 25, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon said the discussions on the BBL, one of the priority bills of the Aquino administration, should not proceed until the issues involving the encounter are addressed.

“We cannot disregard the results of the investigations whether it is the Department of Justice, Board of Inquiry, the armed forces, OPAPP (Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process), the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and even the truth commission in case it is formed,” Biazon told reporters yesterday in Camp Aguinaldo.

“That means we will not be able to meet the deadline on the enactment of the Bangsamoro,” he added.

Leaders of the House of Representatives aim to pass the BBL by March. They, however, admitted that some lawmakers are now hesitant to back the measure because of the encounter in Mamasapano.

The BBL will implement the peace agreement signed by the negotiating panels of the government and the MoroIslamic Liberation Front last March.

The historic agreement aims to create a new Bangsamoro region that will enjoy greater political and economic powers. The new region will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which has been described by President Aquino as “a failed experiment.”

Biazon, a member of the House Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, said the administration’s goal of establishing a Bangsamoro region by May is becoming more difficult to realize.

“There are several questions [that have to be answered],” Biazon said.

“We should not proceed further with the deliberation of BBL until all issues are clarified,” he added.

Biazon cited the need to study the BBL provisions on the fragmentation of powers of constitutional bodies and agencies involved in security and the authority of the Chief Minister over the Philippine National Police.

“We also have to examine the normalization program. The need to scrutinize that has become apparent because of what happened in Mamasapano,” the lawmaker said.

The normalization program pertains to the decommissioning of the MILF forces and firearms. A protocol creating an independent decommissioning body was signed by the peace panels in Malaysia last Jan. 29.

The 44 members of the Special Action Force who were killed in the clash with Muslim rebels were tasked to arrest high-value terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir or “Marwan” and Basit Usman

Various government agencies and the MILF have launched separate probes on the encounter.