‘Bangsamoro law dead’

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed the Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region that has been stripped of 48 unconstitutional provisions as a substitute to the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law even as Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. claimed that the BBL was as good as dead.

Rodriguez, the city’s representative to the House of Representatives and chairman of the ad hoc committee on the BBL, is optimistic that lawmakers would approve his substitute bill when Congress resumes session on Nov. 3.

He said his new bill is scheduled for House deliberation from Nov. 3 to Dec. 16.

Rodriguez said 48 unconstitutional provisions in the BBL have been removed from his substitute bill.

“Let us just hope that we will be able to get the needed quorum during the Nov. 3 to Dec. 16 deliberations, otherwise the BBL is dead,” said Rodriguez.

“We are running out of time as the campaign period for the 2016 elections starts in January,” he added.

Marcos said the BBL is dead and has no chance to be passed in the Senate and the House.

“We really have a hard time passing it in this Congress because we have a very difficult task and no time to finish it,” he said during his visit to San Fernando, La Union, over the weekend.

Marcos said the lawmakers have little time for the BBL because Congress will adjourn on Oct. 9 and will tackle the 2016 budget when the two chambers resume session after the holidays for the dead.

“By November, if the budget is there, all other hearings will be cancelled so we can finish it by December. And then by January to February, we expect lack of quorum because it’s already campaign period,” he said.

He said both the House and the Senate are still in the period of interpellations on the provisions of the BBL and they are not yet in the period of amendments.

Marcos said that the Senate committee on local government that he chairs was able to craft a substitute bill that answered deficiencies of the original BBL.

“I filed this (substitute bill) a month ago but the problem is we are already in the deadline,” he said.     

MILF laments delay in BBL passage

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), for its part, lamented that the passage of the BBL is hampered by the lack of quorum in the House and the diluted version of the measure in the Senate.

In an editorial posted on its website luwaran.com, the MILF said President Aquino’s commitment is the only thing that “keeps the ember of hope still alive” for the BBL.

“President Aquino promised recently to push the BBL in all directions. But the lack of quorum in the House has continued to haunt those who appear to be pushing for it,” the editorial read.

“So far no one in government has ever said the BBL is already dead on track. But if one compares this commitment with what is happening in both Houses, especially in the Lower House, the least that can be said is that the BBL is passing through the proverbial eye of the needle,” it added.

The MILF also believes that certain “spoilers” have stalled the BBL, which seeks to form a new Bangsamoro region with enhanced political and economic powers. 

“They (spoilers) know that their number one ally is the conscripting time left for the passage of the bill,” the group said.

The MILF said while the measure is moving in the Senate, the substitute bill introduced by Marcos had severely revised the original proposal.

“The main obstacle is the kind of the substitute bill introduced by Senator Marcos. The deliberation could have been faster if he had not only crafted his version of the BBL from out of the blue,” the group said.

“He set aside almost completely the original BBL, which was crafted on the basis of the letter and spirit of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB),” it added.

The MILF said Marcos’ substitute bill is “way far below the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM),” the region that the President once described as a “failed experiment.”

According to the MILF, some deletions and additions in the substitute bill are clearly unconstitutional, like the removal of “inland waters” conferred to the ARMM and the mention of “sultanates rights” which the group said is against the constitutional principle that the state will not recognize the title of nobility or royalty.

The MILF’s rival faction Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is not happy with the Rodriguez substitute bill as it is now pushing for the so-called Bangsamoro constitutional convention.

Newly installed MNLF vice chairman Punduma Sani said both substitute versions of the proposed BBL being pushed by Rodriguez and Marcos are not acceptable.

Sani insisted that a Bangsamoro constitutional convention be held and that delegates must come from all sectors of society in the Bangsamoro homeland.

Accepting the BBL proposal of Rodriguez is definitely out of the question, while the alternative bill being offered by Marcos has its own set of flaws, according to Sani.

Sani also accused Marcos of saving his own skin by presenting an alternative BBL proposal to forward his own political propaganda.

“Marcos failed to grasp the real import and goal of enacting a law in the south and the Bangsamoro. Peace can be achieved only if economic contentment is achieved,” Sani said. With Alexis Romero, Jun Elias