MANILA, Jan. 26 (PNA) — Muntinlupa City Rep. Rodolfo Biazon on Monday joined Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in asking the House committee handling the deliberations on Bangsamoro Basic Law pending the submission of reports on the latest skirmishes in Mindanao.
Biazon, chairman of the House committee on National Defense, filed House Resolution 1834 on Monday on that effect.
The resolution stemmed from two incidents: the first on Jan. 23 when a bomb exploded in Zamboanga City, killing two and injuring 52; and the second on the Jan. 25 incident where almost 50 elements of the PNP Special Action Force were killed in an operation in Maguindanao.
Marcos, upon learning of the latest incident, immediately decided to suspend the hearing on BBL. He is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government handling the BBL issue.
Biazon specifically wants a suspension on the discussion on the national defense, security and public order provisions of the proposed law.
The former AFP chief-turned-politician said the same resolution wants the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) to conduct parallel investigations on the matter.
Biazon said the reports will be material to the discussions on the provisions on the fragmentation of powers and authorities on national defense and security and public order, the creation of a separate AFP command for the autonomous region, the authority of the chief minister over the PNP, and the shape of the normalization provisions.
The ad hoc committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law already started its closed-door executive sessions on the bill Monday, targeting to elevate the proposed law to plenary next month.
Once enacted into law, the bill law is believed to serve as a missing link to end the more than four decades of Muslim secessionist in Mindanao and will replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (PNA)