By Sammy F. Martin
MANILA, August 17 (PNA) — House Independent Bloc Leader and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Monday said House Ad Hoc committee on Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) panel should allow non-members to further review, study and scrutinize the peace measure to ensure this would be constitutionally compliant.
“Lawmakers need more time to study the BBL because we want to guarantee that what we would be passing will be legal and constitutional,” said Romualdez as absenteeism is now plaguing again the House of Representatives affecting the passage of BBL.
But Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. vowed to meet the passage of the BBL by the end of September despite quorum problem, which for him is already alarming.
“I am still confident that the BBL can still be passed by the House of Representatives. I am appealing to my colleagues to attend the sessions,” Belmonte pointed out.
.BUHAY party-list Rep. Lito Atienza pressed anew the punishment against lawmakers who skip parliamentary sessions and padlock the session since many lawmakers disappear after the roll call.
He proposed the regular publication of names of absenteelawmakers in various national newspapers or in the journal of the House of Representatives and possibly withheld the salaries and other perks of his colleagues to compel them from attending plenary sessions.
“Let us publish the names of absentee congressmen. That’s the demand of the public i-publish ang pangalan para malaman ng mga tao who are the perennial absentees and what is the leadership doing about it. Hindi ba under the rules, may kapangyarihan naman ang leadership to even bodily force the congressmen to attend session and even lock the session hall?” Atienza asked.
Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano said the government should leave the approval of the BBL to the next administration, explaining more lawmakers should not force a vote without studying and scrutinizing the peace measure.
“Don’t force the BBL approval now. Let the next administration tackle and renegotiate it,” said Alejano. “We promised too much to MILF. Do not promise something that we cannot deliver.”
The House of Representatives is eyeing to pass the peace measure on third and final reading by September 20 or before the proposed Php3.002 Trillion General Appropriations Bill for next year reaches the plenary.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the 75-member House ad hoc committee on the BBL, reiterated his rejection to the request of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) chairman and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief negotiator Mohaquer Iqbal to restore at least 28 provisions deleted by lawmakers from the BBL.
“We had 51 hearings on these particular measure until the time that we approved it at the ad hoc committee. All of these have been fully discussed over and over again with the consensus of the 50 of the 75-man ad hoc committee,” Rodriguez explained.
“It is very necessary to make the bill constitutionally compliant. In other words, if we put back these 28 provisions [as requested by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission or BTC] we believe that it may not be able to pass the Supreme Court constitutional scrutiny. Thechamber wants to help craft a bill that will be successful not only in being passed in the House and Senate but also the in the SC. We are sure that many would want to question this . . .even now there are already some questions,” he stressed. (PNA)