MANILA, Philippines - The President cannot dictate on the House of Representatives in its deliberations on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.
At the same time, Belmonte stressed the chamber would do its best to have the BBL passed before Congress adjourns in June.
Belmonte was reacting to the repeated admonitions from Malacañang as well as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that Congress should approve the BBL as soon as possible and without changes.
The BBL seeks to create a new autonomous region in Mindanao to replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
He said lawmakers cannot be forced to pass the BBL without them excising its unconstitutional provisions.
He said members of the House ad hoc committee, led by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, had traveled to Spain and other countries to see how autonomous regions work.
“They’re (lawmakers) not dummies that can be led around. They also have some background on what things you have to consider, what things you cannot consider,” Belmonte told reporters Thursday night.
“The BBL that’s pending before us, for sure, it cannot be passed as is in the face of constitutional issues,” he said.
Deliberations on the BBL have been suspended in the aftermath of the Mamasapano incident. Rodriguez said the panel would resume hearings once it receives the report of the Philippine National Police’s Board of Inquiry on its investigation into the incident.
President Aquino earlier met with lawmakers belonging to the majority bloc and asked them to approve at once the BBL without “diluting it too much.”
Part of the administration’s deal with the MILF when it signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in March 2014 was to convince Congress to pass the BBL.
The House leader also said the MILF leaders and their members must keep in mind they are also Filipinos and therefore covered by the Constitution.
“Our obligation is to the Constitution. We have to abide by it, especially that we’re public officials. Aside from being Bangsamoro they are first Filipinos, the Constitution also holds sway over them,” Belmonte said.
“We’ll try to hew as much as possible to what was agreed upon but definitely not at the cost of violating the Constitution,” he said.
No camera
Meanwhile, government peace negotiators said they want to arrange a closed door meeting with lawmakers, particularly Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, to clarify concerns over the BBL.
“It’s part of my job as chair of the government peace panel to engage our senators. It’s better that we talk with the senators and the congressmen without the presence of cameras,” government peace panel chairman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said over radio dzRH yesterday.
Santiago earlier said the BBL should be reviewed and pruned of unconstitutional provisions. She also said the peace negotiations in general might need a reboot. Other lawmakers have raised the same sentiment.
“Whenever there is a camera, many of the lawmakers want to talk. They just debated. We can fix everything through a better option. Let us sit down and explain. Our government panel and the MILF are not unreasonable,” Ferrer said.
She said the government has to deal with the MILF because it’s the biggest existing Muslim group in the country.– Paolo Romero