‘Still a slim chance to save BBL’

MANILA, Philippines – After saying that the proposed Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR) is dead, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday said there might still be a slim chance it could be saved and passed by the Senate.

Marcos, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, vowed that he will try to find possible means to save the measure up to the last minute.

“Even if the Senate and the House manage to pass the measure, a big hurdle remains as it may prove difficult for the bicameral conference committee to reconcile the differing provisions given the limited time,” Marcos said.

He suggested that the BLBAR can still see the light of day if the House agrees to adopt the Senate version or the Senate adopts the House version to speed up the process.

Marcos noted though that many lawmakers expressed concern on the constitutional infirmities of the Palace-version Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which is the subject of the House debates. 

His committee had totally rewritten the BBL at the Senate, doing away with constitutional questions.   

“In the Senate, we are discussing the substitute bill I filed but in the House they are essentially deliberating on the so-called Palace version,” Marcos noted.

His statement came a day after Senate President Franklin Drilon said the BBL is not yet dead as the 16th Congress wraps up work by mid-2016. Drilon said the Senate is taking a conservative stand of considering the bill as one of local application.

“What we intend to do is debate it in the chamber… we will process it to the point probably of passage on second reading, then await House approval and pass it on third reading,” Drilon said on Thursday.

Unlike in the House of Representatives, the Senate president added that there is no problem of mustering quorum at the Senate.

To further speed up the process, Marcos would convince his colleagues to send him all their proposed amendments, agree on what they could and let the committee propose the amendments.

“In our version, if we finish the period of interpellation, I think we can find a compromise so we no longer have to debate on the proposed amendments in the plenary,” Marcos said.

Senate minority leaders Juan Ponce Enrile and Vicente Sotto III have manifested that they have not wrapped up their interpellations on the controversial measure.  

The other day, Marcos expressed fears that Congress might run out of time to pass the proposed BLBAR with the bill still in the period of interpellation and with only a few session days left next year.

Marcos also considered the difficulty in getting a quorum at the House in January because most of the congressmen would already be busy in the campaign for the May 2016 elections.

He stressed that he remains committed to the search for peace in Muslim Mindanao and that the quest for peace must continue even if the proposed Bangsamoro Law fails to pass under the present Congress. – With Paolo Romero