Senators and congressmen are expected to ratify the final draft of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law when the 17th Congress opens its third regular session on Monday.
House majority leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said the bicameral conference committee’s approved version of the BBL will be submitted to the President for his reconsideration. Fariñas is the head of the House of Representatives’ contingent head to the bicameral conference committee on the BBL.
The joint congressional panel was expected to approve a final version of the BBL Tuesday—that is ‘constitutional’ and acceptable to all parties concerned. The House’s version was embodied in House Bill 6475 while the Senate’s under Senate Bill 1717.
The President’ s imminent BBL signing into law next week gives him the power to appoint the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority this December, according to Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, head of the Senate contingent head of the bicameral conference committee on the BBL.
The BBL proposes to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The newly created Bangsamoro region shall be called the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“But ARMM will be retained should the creation of BARMM lose in the plebiscite,” Zubiri said at a news conference during Tuesday’s bicameral conference committee meeting held at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel.
Zubiri said the expected approval of the BBL bill “was the day that God has made for all of us, especially Mindanao although it’s a rainy day, it is sunny in Mindanao.”
“And we look at it as a sign, that finally we’ll be able to end this long-drawn problem of conflict in the island of Mindanao. Hopefully, with this law, peace will reign for long period of time. For their children and their children’s children,” said Zubiri.
Zubiri said the first election in BARMM could be held simultaneously with the 2022 presidential elections.
He said Congress leaders are hopeful that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will support the bicameral conference committee-approved measure as they have made every provision of the proposed law acceptable to the concerned party.
“The MILF has already said that is all about 80 to 90 percent compliant with the peace agreement signed in 2014. I am happy with that. We cannot get everything… sometimes what we want may not be constitutional,” said Zubiri.
Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Raneo Abu welcomed the progress of the BBL to address the peace and order problem in Mindanao.
“This landmark legislation would surely bring developments in Mindanao as it offers a solution to the peace and order concern there,” said Abu.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier threatened to step down should Congress fail to approve the BBL.
At the sidelines of the bicameral conference committee meeting Tuesday, a group dubbed the Bangsamoro Insider Mediators warned against the passage of a “diluted” (BBL).
The group, led by one Shallom Allian, said the proposed law “should not be lesser than the [Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao].”
“For us, the BBL, as submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission to the Congress of the Philippines, is the faithful translation of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and other past agreements, and is the restoration, fulfillment and safeguard of our people’s rights and welfare,” the group said.
“Hence, this is the appeal we make to the Conferees: respect all signed agreements by passing a law that is not counter to the letter and spirit, text and context of the CAB and past agreements,” it stated.
BBL plebiscite eyed in November
Meanwhile, Zubiri said the plebiscite for the ratification of the proposed BBL
may be held in November.
“We’re looking at a plebiscite hopefully by November of this year for ratification,” Zubiri said.
He said that once the BBL is ratified through a plebiscite, President Rodrigo Duterte could set up the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).
“If it is ratified, the president can appoint members of the BTA by December or January at the latest of 2019,” Zubiri said.
The bicameral committee earlier adopted the House of Representatives version of the BBL, which provides that “the six municipalities of Lanao del Norte and the 39 barangays of North Cotabato could vote to join the BBL territory in a referendum to be conducted in the mother territory of the areas involved.”
Zubiri said parliamentary elections may be held in 2022 along with the national elections. With PNA