By Sammy F. Martin
MANILA, March 2 (PNA) — Both Houses of Congress sealed an agreement on Monday to revise and amend the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to ensure its constitutionality even if this would result to a watered-down version as feared by Moro rebels.
House Majority Floor Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales II said the agreement was reached during the regular monthly meeting of Congress leaders to update their legislative agenda.
“We agreed that what we are going to approve is a constitutional BBL. We need to amend the proposal to ensure its constitutionality. To insist on what had been submitted by the Palace is not possible and realistic,” Gonzales said in an interview amidst appeal by President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III not to change the BBL too much.
“We are hoping to approve the proposal before the sine die adjournment on June 11,” Gonzales told House reporters.
He said the meeting was attended by him, SenatePresident Franklin Drilon, Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., Sen. Ralph Recto and Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo.
He also said that the possibility of special session after the sine die adjournment of the Second Regular Session of the 16th Congress is impossible.
“I don’t think it will work, I hope we pass the BBL before we adjourn by June,” he said.
Earlier, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, the chairman of the 75-man ad hoc committee on the BBL, proposed one to two weeks special session to salvage the ”dying” bill seeking to create the Bangsamoro juridical entity.
Rodriguez said he was only eyeing a special session if the House of Representatives would not be able to approve the proposed BBL on sine die adjournment of the Second regular Session of the 16th Congress on June 11, adding that the July 27 resumption for the Third Regular Session would not be enough because lawmakers would be focusing on the deliberations of the 2016 national budget.
Earlier, Rodriguez said the panel was seriously considering the concerns raised against some provisions in the BBL that might be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (SC), such as allowing other areas outside the Bangsamoro territory to also join the entity upon a petition of at least 10 percent of the constituents, creation of its own internal audit body despite the presence of the Commission on Audit (CoA), disciplining of public officials and employees or a power to be taken away from the Office of the Ombudsman, establishment of civil service, human rights body, allowing Bangsamoro to run its elections, and among others.
The bill is aimed at creating the new Bangsamoro juridical entity, replacing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
This was a result of the peace talks being pushed by the government with the MILF.
The Bangsamoro measure was an offshoot of the historic signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) by the Government Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF last March 27, 2014.
The delays in the passage of BBL were an offshoot of the Mamasapano, Maguindanao carnage last Jan. 25, 2015 where 44 members of Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were killed by the combined forces of the MILF and its breakaway faction, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
The SAF members killed Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan” during the operation in the early hours of Jan. 25 in Tukanalipao village, Mamasapano, but Filipino terrorist Basit Usman, though wounded, managed to escape. (PNA)