Bangsamoro Law returned to transition commission

MANILA, Philippines - The timely passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in Congress has become dim as Malacañang tossed back the document to the body that drafted it to rewrite “problematic provisions” that could violate the Constitution, a leader of the House of Representatives bared yesterday.

Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa told leaders of the Senate and the House on Friday that the proposed BBL, which will create a new autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao, was sent back to the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), whose members include officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and government peace panel.

The meeting was part of the regular dialogue between the Senate and House leaders, who pressed Ochoa when the draft BBL would be submitted to them as the document would still have to be subjected to a plebiscite before candidates for various posts in the new autonomous government will be allowed to run in the May 2016 elections.

“I think the approval in Congress will take more time than expected because the (proposed) Bangsamoro Basic Law was returned to the negotiating panel and we were told that there were really many problematic provisions that will run counter to the Constitution,” Gonzales said.

“From what I heard, there were already debates on the preamble alone,” he added.

Government chief peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer explained that the BTC continues to resolve the differences to come up with a mutually acceptable BBL, and she remains confident that both sides will soon reach an agreement.

Earlier, MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal said Malacañang’s suggested revisions had “heavily diluted” the proposed BBL that would render the Bangsamoro less autonomous than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that it seeks to replace.

But Ferrer maintained that the revisions in the BBL draft would not mean that the key features that would distinguish the ARMM from the Bangsamoro are not being put forward in the draft such as the parliamentary form of government, high fiscal autonomy, and a transition arrangement where the MILF’s brand of leadership will be tested. – With Edith Regalado