SPEAKER Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Tuesday shrugged off the accusation by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that he and other House leaders should be blamed for a failed Bangsamoro Basic Law.
“I tried my best,” Belmonte told The Standard. “It has gone a long way in the House of Representatives.”
As far as the House is concerned, Belmonte said, lawmakers—particularly those in the ad hoc committee on the BBL chaired by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez—have conducted extensive and through deliberations to come up with a peace document that complies with the Constitution.
“We have been discussing it for about two years,” Belmonte said.
He added that Congress cannot pass the BBL the way the MILF wants it, and said the rebel group should admit that the bill was also unpopular among senators because of its perceived constitutional flaws.
“Let’s face it, it has hardly moved in the Senate,” Belmonte said.
The leader of the independent minority bloc in the House, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, said the BBL as it was submitted would not pass even if the Mamasapano massacre did not occur, because of the bill’s constitutional infirmities, which the House tried to correct.
At a news conference Tuesday, Romualdez, president of the Philippine Constitution Association or Philconsa, also appealed to President Benigno Aquino III to respect the Constitution in advocating the passage of the peace measure.
“Where else will you find a Romualdez defending an Aquino Constitution? I am serving and defending the Constitution drafted and passed during the term of then President Cory Aquino. Under the BBL, there were assaults to it [Constitution[ by this administration led by the son of the former president. If you want to pass the BBL as currently submitted, there must be substantial changes to avoid violations of the Constitution,” Romualdez said.
“The BBL is diametrically opposed to the Constitution and lawmakers will not approve a half-baked peace bill that will soon be questioned before the Supreme Court and declared unconstitutional. Even without the Mamasapano incident, the BBL was doomed,” Romualdez said, referring to the covert operation on Jan. 25, 2015, in Maguindanao in which 44 police commandos were killed by Muslim rebels, including those belonging to the MILF.
Romualdez said the government failed to communicate well with stakeholders during the drafting of the BBL.
