Bangsamoro Basic Law not dead – Speaker

MANILA, Philippines - Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. assured the people yesterday that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is not dead despite the suspension by the House of Representatives of the deliberations on the proposed measure following the killing of 44 police commandos in an encounter with Moro rebels in Maguindanao last Jan. 25.

The ad hoc committee, which is writing the draft BBL for plenary approval, has indefinitely suspended its executive sessions after lawmakers and some political blocs in the House sought to defer the deliberations on the bill pending the results of the investigations into the Mamasapano encounter, where members of the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s Special Action Force (SAF), three civilians and an undetermined number of Moro rebels were killed.

The Senate has begun its probe into the incident while the House will start today its own inquiry.

Cagayan de Oro Rep Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the ad hoc committee on the BBL, said the panel will review the incident reports as submitted by the PNP, the Armed Forces, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

“I didn’t say that the BBL will not pass, only that it cannot make the original deadline,” Belmonte said in a text message, referring to the previous timetable of the House to approve the measure next month.

He said he remains optimistic the chamber will be able to pass the landmark measure that seeks to create a new autonomous region in Mindanao in the coming months.

Belmonte said he would ask the House committee on peace and order, chaired by Negros Occidental Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer, to speed up its inquiry so the ad hoc panel can resume deliberations soon.

Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II on Monday said he urged members of the ad hoc panel to resume their work and let Ferrer’s committee focus on investigating the incident.

The chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday said he is saddened by the suspension of congressional deliberations on the draft BBL.

Mohaquer Iqbal, concurrent chairman of the MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission, said they have mixed feelings on the suspension of the congressional initiative to enact into law the draft BBL supposedly within the first quarter of 2015.

“That is what the Lower House wants. We’re on a ‘wait-and-see stance’ now,” Iqbal told reporters.

Iqbal emphasized, however, that the MILF respects the decision of the 75-member ad-hoc committee. He said they are hoping the deliberations on the BBL would soon resume.

Appeal to the House

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) urged congressmen yesterday to resume their hearings on the BBL.

He made the appeal after submitting his report to Rep. Rodriguez regarding the encounter between the police SAF commandos and Moro rebels in Mamasapano last Jan. 25.

“The BBL is the key to achieving peace in Mindanao, because it is the product of the (government’s) comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) with the MILF,” he said.

He suggested that the hearings on the draft law could proceed until the results of the investigations the ad hoc committee is awaiting are submitted.

Aside from the Rodriguez panel, political groups belonging to the Liberal Party-led majority in the House, including the Nationalist People’s Coalition, National Unity Party and the group of party-list representatives, have expressed their consensus in favor of temporarily suspending BBL proceedings.

Thousands of residents converged yesterday in several sites in Cotabato City to call on Congress to reconsider its suspension of hearings on the BBL.

Speakers took turns urging the government not to let the Mamasapano encounter derail the enactment of the BBL into law.

The simultaneous rallies were organized by different civic groups and non-government organizations engaged in areas covered by the government-MILF July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

Local officials in Maguindanao, including members of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council chaired by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, had earlier called for a peaceful resolution of the Mamasapano incident.

Mangudadatu said he and the 36 mayors of Maguindanao are against any outbreak of hostilities in the province as a consequence of Mamasapano.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza appealed yesterday to her Moro constituents not to interpret the temporary suspension of congressional deliberations on the draft BBL as a turnaround by government from the Mindanao peace process.

“The suspension of House deliberations on the draft BBL is not a termination of the peace process,” said Mendoza, who chairs the inter-agency North Cotabato provincial peace and order council.

Mendoza said the suspension of all meetings and hearings related to the BBL was deferred pending the inquiries on the Mamasapano clash.

“The whole nation in these trying times only wants to know the truth,” Mendoza said. – With Jess Diaz, John Unson