PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has submitted the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law before Congress without any changes to the version crafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, the Palace said Friday.
“As far as we know, the same version given by the working committee [of the BTC] is the same one given by the President,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a chance interview.
In an Aug. 14 transmittal letter by the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Usecretary Ryan Estevez said they were placing the future of the draft bill to Congress, which would decide on the matter along with the bill to be crafted by the Nur Misuari-led Moro National Liberation Front.
“We trust in the collective wisdom of Congress should they deem proper to refine the draft further in the course of the regular legislative mill to reflect the genuine aspirations of the Filipino people,” Estevez said.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission last July 17 submitted to Duterte its proposals for a draft Bangsamoro Enabling Law, which is a “20 to 30 percent improvement and revision” of the previous bill which failed to pass in the 16th Congress, MILF Implementing Panel chairman Mohaguer Iqbal said.
Giving important highlights of the draft BBL, Iqbal said the BTC had taken into account the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro inked between the Aquino administration and the MILF in March 2014 and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between the Ramos administration and the Moro National Liberation Front.
Iqbal said among the important revisions were:
• Inclusion of a provisional government or the Bangsamoro Transition Authority which will serve as the “bridge” replacing the ARMM with a Bangsamoro Federal Government after the BBL is passed by Congress;
• Co-management of metallic and non-metallic resources between the Bangsamoro Federal Region and the national government;
• Socio-economic reforms;
• Provisions for a plebiscite, in deference to the 1996 Final Peace Agreement; and
• Creation of offices for Christian Communities, Women and Youth.
The submission of the new BBL to Duterte will be the end of MILF’s active role in its formulation of the new bill, as all stakeholders would have to wait for the discussions in Congress, which Iqbal expects to be finished at around first quarter of 2018.
The approval of the proposed postponement of village and youth polls followed an all-party caucus last week where lawmakers agreed to hold the barangay elections in time for the Charter change plebiscite and the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law on May 14, 2018.
