House won’t suspend BBL passage

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives will stick to its timetable in passing the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) amid mounting calls to suspend deliberations on the proposal following last Sunday’s clashes in Maguindanao that left 44 policemen dead.

“We might run out of time (to pass the BBL),” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said on calls to suspend deliberations of the House ad hoc committee on the BBL.

Belmonte described as “abominable” the killing of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) operatives in Mamasapano town last Sunday.

Almost 400 SAF members had been sent to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman.

Zulkifli is a Malaysian bomb maker with a $5-million bounty from the US government. He was the high value target, along with Basit Usman, of the operation.

The arrest turned into a bloodbath as the policemen were leaving the area and encountered rebels from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The MILF signed a peace treaty with the government in March last year but the BIFF, a breakaway faction, was not part of it.

Part of the deal with the MILF was to draft a law that would create a new autonomous region in Mindanao.

Belmonte said the final draft of the BBL being written by the panel, chaired by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, “could still be influenced by the outcome of the formal investigation” on last Sunday’s clashes.

The 75-member committee ended last week its public hearings on the BBL and is in the process of writing the final draft for plenary approval in March.

Among its last resource persons were constitutional experts, representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the MILF.

The House leadership aims to pass the BBL by March even as Belmonte admitted that lawmakers’ support for the Malacañang-backed draft “has been somewhat eroded by the incident” in Mamasapano.

Sens. Alan Peter Cayetano and JV Ejercito have withdrawn their support for the Bangsamoro law but Sens. Teofisto Guingona III and Paolo Benigno Aquino IV are not withdrawing support for the bill.

Aquino explained the Bangsamoro measure is still in the process of deliberations at the committee level of the Senate, and any amendments or revisions can still be introduced if needed.

“I am just hoping that we won’t have a gut feel reaction to immediate drop the issue,” he said.

Rodriguez, for his part, said support for the bill has not waned despite last Sunday’s bloody incident.

“Support for the BBL remains intact. None of the authors of the draft law has withdrawn his or her authorship and no one from Mindanao has announced he is not for the approval of the measure,” he said.

Rodriguez denied rumors circulating in the House of Representatives that at least 10 of his colleagues from Mindanao have withdrawn their support for the proposed law.

“Those rumors are simply not true. I don’t know where they are coming from,” he said.

The draft BBL is denominated as House Bill 4994 with Belmonte and other House leaders as its principal authors.

Rodriguez said he himself is not yet a co-author but intends to be one when his panel endorses the proposed legislation that would create the Bangsamoro region.

He said many members of his committee, if not all of them, would be co-authors.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairman Loretta Ann Rosales said the bloody clash between the police and Muslim insurgents in Maguindanao over the weekend has underscored the urgent need to pass the BBL.

“Any rash and strident response to this incident would surely result in more bloodshed and casualties,” Rosales said.

“We urge those who are angling to scuttle the Mindanao peace process to desist from exploiting the noble sacrifice of our special forces to achieve their ulterior motives,” she added. – With Jess Diaz, Janvic Mateo, Evelyn Macairan