MANILA, Philippines - The substitute Bangsamoro Bill has been given an almost 80-percent “make-over” to make it constitutionally firm.
Its 115 provisions have been thoroughly reviewed, according to Senate committee on local government chairman Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“Let me give a percentage, would 80 percent be reasonable?” he asked. “When you mean amend, it means any change, sometimes we move the comma, sometimes we move the provisions from the beginning to the end.”
After consolidating the proposed amendments of his colleagues, he hopes to sponsor the bill next week, Marcos said.
The committee is still in the process of threshing out issues on the decommissioning process and the security of tenure for civil service workers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and all employees to eventually be working for the envisioned Bangsamoro government, he added.
Marcos again debunked allegations that he is deliberately delaying passage of the Bangsamoro Bill.
“To what end? There’s no reason for us to delay, but I am confident that when people will see the final version they will understand why we have been very careful and that we tried to address every problem or shortcoming or lack of clarity that we encountered in the draft BBL.”
Legislation of the Bangsamoro Bill is within the Constitution, lawmakers said through a statement from the Peace Process media bureau.
House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong denied that Malacañang is pressuring lawmakers to pass the Bangsamoro Bill.
“Can we really say the legislative process being done on the BBL is forced? If it is like that, then I’m sure it would have been passed by Congress a long time ago,” he said.
Critics of the BBL are mistaken in bashing the Bangsamoro peace process, Balindong said.
“Whoever is saying that Malacañang is forcing the BBL on Congress is not only mistaken but a liar who will rob our people of peace in exchange for political gains,” he said.
“The BBL legislative process is unlike what some corrupt personalities do when they approve right away public project contracts then claim later on that they are not familiar with the details.”
Balindong denied that the Bangsamoro peace process is not inclusive and excluded other stakeholders in Mindanao.
“To say that no hearings and consultations were done in relation to the bill we are forging here in Congress is not true, because in my experience, since time immemorial, there is no bill in the history of the legislative branch of government that was afforded 51 consultations all over the country,” he said.
House ad hoc committee on the BBL vice-chairman Tupay Loong said Congress has conducted numerous hearings and briefings on the BBL, and more than 500 consultations were conducted through the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) for more than three years.
“We want to lead under the atmosphere of peace, thus the BBL must not become a victim of anyone who is aspiring for the presidency,” he said.
Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice said the BBL legislation is in accordance with the Constitution.
“The proposed BBL was submitted to Congress because that is what the Constitution mandates – that only Congress can pass a law for the autonomous region in Mindanao,” he said.