75-member House panel to tackle BBL

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A 75-member ad hoc committee the House of Representatives organized Wednesday to study the draft Basic Bangsamoro Law (BBL) will start deliberations on the bill on Sept. 24.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the committee, said they will initially convene on Sept. 24 to set organizational policies in tackling the draft BBL.

“We also have to define the rules of the committee and set the calendar of its activities,” he said.

Rodriguez said the ad-hoc committee, organized when President Aquino presented the draft BBL to Congress, has pooled together all six House committees to handle aspects of peace and security, justice, reconciliation, local government, budget and defense issues.

“This is to fast-track the enactment into law of the draft BBL,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said members of the ad-hoc committee would tour the provinces in the proposed Bangsamoro core territory to consult stakeholders on the draft BBL.

The House of Representatives will also provide the necessary funds for a plebiscite that would ask people within the proposed Bangsamoro entity in Muslim Mindanao if they want to be included in the region.

“We will have to appropriate funds for the plebiscite. Most likely, the appropriation will be included in the BBL itself that Congress will pass,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, House appropriations committee chairman, said yesterday.

Ungab said the 2015 budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) does not include funding for approval of the proposed Bangsamoro region by voters in provinces, cities, towns and barangays to be included in it.

It is the Comelec that will conduct the plebiscite, which, according to Rodriguez, might be held in the first quarter of next year.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. has told the Ungab committee that the poll body has requested the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to add P679 million to its 2015 budget for the envisioned Bangsamoro plebiscite.

However, Brillantes said the DBM slashed the amount, together with P7.1 billion for another plebiscite for the ratification of Charter changes being discussed by the House and P321.6 million for new elections in local government units where voters are petitioning for the recall of their local officials.

Also taken out of the Comelec budget was more than P90 million for the registration and vote participation of more overseas Filipinos, Brillantes said.

Gathering support

The envisioned Bangsamoro entity would replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

According to ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, under the draft BBL, the five predominantly Muslim provinces of the autonomous Muslim region would comprise the Bangsamoro territory.

“These are Basilan, except Isabela City, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. But the BBL proposes to include in the Bangsamoro region Isabela City, Cotabato City in North Cotabato, and several towns in Lanao del Norte,” he said.

Hataman said the people of Isabela City and Cotabato City had voted to be out of ARMM when the plebiscite for the autonomous Muslim region was held.

“But the seat of the autonomous government is Cotabato City, which is outside the region. That is why the BBL now seeks to include it,” he added.

Hataman also assured thousands of ARMM personnel that the planned new Bangsamoro region would absorb them.

“We have tens of thousands of devolved personnel. The ARMM education sector alone employs 23,000 public school teachers. I think they will be absorbed,” he said.

Rodriguez also assured support from his colleagues in the House of Representatives in the enactment of the BBL.

“There are almost 70 of us from Mindanao, including those in the party-list. I’m sure we will all together support all efforts to have the BBL soon,” he said.

Another Mindanao lawmaker, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, also gave assurance of help to hasten the enactment of the draft BBL.

Guingona said the creation of a Bangsamoro entity based on the draft BBL will usher in peace and development in Moro communities in Southern Mindanao. – Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano