Bangsamoro draft law ready before SONA

MANILA, Philippines - The draft Bangsamoro Basic Law is now being fine-tuned and is expected to be transmitted to Congress before President Aquino delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the joint opening session of Congress on July 28.

Aquino said his meeting with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim in Hiroshima, Japan was all about how they could ensure the swift passage of the Bangsamoro Law in Congress.

“We’re putting in all of the details and I asked him if it would be possible to meet sometime next week, either their panels or we in particular or our designated representatives,” Aquino told the media in Iloilo City yesterday.

Aquino said this is “to thresh out and come up with that proposed measure and give it to Congress even before the SONA.”

“As the Americans say, the devil is in the details. We expect this to happen faster,” he said.

Peace Adviser Teresita Deles has met with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. “primarily to hasten the process of coming up with that proposed measure that both parties can fully support and endorse.”

Aquino said he has tasked his legal team to review the document.

“I don’t think there’s a disagreement on the guiding principles; there is an agreement on how you actually work. There’s a need to further refine the language so that it really states a meeting of the minds of both parties,” he added.

Japan hosted secret talks between Aquino and the MILF leader in 2011, which later became recognized as a key moment in pushing forward the peace agreement signed earlier this year.

“It was a one-on-one meeting with no Cabinet members present. As in their previous meetings, it is reasonable to infer that they discussed the progress of the peace process and how this may be brought to full fruition in accordance with the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

The meeting coincided with the International Conference on Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which the President also attended.

Coloma cited Aquino’s keynote speech during the conference, where he recalled his meeting with Murad in Tokyo in 2011 – his first face to-face encounter with the MILF leader – which he described as a breakthrough in the peace process.

“The trust borne of that engagement was a positive turning point as it allowed us to move forward toward the realization of our shared aspirations,” he said, quoting the President’s speech.

Despite the delay in the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which the President is expected to certify for urgent approval, Coloma said the trust and confidence between Aquino and Murad remain high and unshaken.

Coloma said the good relationship between Aquino and Murad led to the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro on March 27.

He said the draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which was supposed to be submitted to Congress last May, is still being studied.

He said the primary consideration of the Palace legal team was to ensure that it would be in accordance with the Constitution and could be defended before both houses of Congress.

“That is why it was deemed best to conduct a comprehensive and thorough study and we had heard assurances from Congress leaders that once it was submitted at the proper time, it would be acted on promptly,” he said.

Once the Bangsamoro Basic Law is passed and signed by the President, a plebiscite will be conducted in the envisioned core territory of the Bangsamoro to ratify the new government that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao by 2016.

Coloma stressed the need to get inputs from both the government and the MILF.

Coloma, however, did not say if Murad expressed concern over the delay in the submission of the draft law to Congress, but assured the public that it is a priority of the Aquino administration.