‘No need to remind Noy’s allies on BBL passage’

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang believes there is no need for President Aquino to remind his allies in Congress about the importance of passing the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) within the first quarter of this year.

“As elected officials, they know the pulse of the people on the matter. Allies of the government from the international community had offered to support the implementation of the peace agreement,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said yesterday.

“We are hopeful that they will do what is right,” Coloma told reporters.

He said even Pope Francis had lauded the peace deal signed by the Aquino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The leadership of the House of Representatives under Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and the Senate under Senate President Franklin Drilon had assured the President of the BBL’s passage at the soonest time possible.

The MILF had formed its own political party in preparation for the May 2016 elections.

The proposed BBL is still at the committee level of the House of Representatives.

It is one of 18 measures that Malacañang expects Congress to pass out of the 29 priority bills submitted by the executive department.

Coloma said this was the expectation of Secretary Manuel Mamba of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, whose office is tasked to coordinate with members of both legislative houses regarding the passage of priority bills.

Charter framers back BBL

Fourteen members of the 1986 Constitutional Commission that wrote the Charter are supporting the proposed BBL that would create a new autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao.

The 14, led by former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. and former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Christian Monsod, submitted a position paper to the House special committee on the BBL chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

The 14 are among 18 surviving Charter framers.

Monsod read the document during yesterday’s 36th and last hearing that capped the committee’s four-month consultations with stakeholders and resource persons.

“The core principle of the 1987 Constitution in mandating a special status for the autonomous regions is the human development of Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras,” the Charter framers said.

“Hence, the public conversation should not be about semantics but about people – their needs, their aspirations, their choices and about empowering them,” they said.

They said it is these principles that “to our mind, constitute the essential constitutionality of the proposed BBL.”

They urged lawmakers and all stakeholders to “set aside partisan politics and stop the urge to exhibit our ability to find nuances of legalism that can delay, or worse, derail the process, feeding on the cynicism and playing on the fears in the national psyche that are more reflex reaction than reasoned response.”

“The importance of the Bangsamoro autonomous region to the future of our country is unprecedented both as an unfulfilled promise and as a model of equitable economy,” they said.

Aside from Davide and Monsod, former Supreme Court (SC) justice Adolfo Azcuna, former Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento, Bishop Ted Bacani, constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas, Felicitas Aquino-Arroyo, Florangel Rosario Braid, Edmundo Garcia, Jose Luis Martin Gascon, Ricardo Romulo, Jaime Tadeo, Wilfrido Villacorta and Bernardo Villegas signed the position paper.

Reacting to the Charter framers’ statement, Zamboanga del Sur Gov. Antonio Cerilles said the views of the Con-Com members would not prevail if the BBL, when passed by Congress, is questioned before the high court.  – With Jess Diaz, Marvin Sy, Jose Rodel Clapano, Edith Regalado