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Friday, March 29, 2024

Quorum lack threatens BBL

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The House of Representatives can no longer pass the Palace- backed Bangsamoro Basic Law if  quorum woes persist, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said.

“Our number one problem here at the Lower House is quorum,” Belmonte told reporters fresh from a three-week Halloween break.

But Belmonte said the House leadership will exert greater effort to have the measure discussed and debated on the floor thoroughly during the last session days of Congress.

For as long as there is no quorum, the BBL will not   get passed,” Belmonte hinted.

During the resumption of session   Monday, only a handful of lawmakers, led by Belmonte, showed up at the session hall which led to the adjournment of session.

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Belmonte said he would continue to appeal to his colleagues to sustain the quorum even if election season has started in order to ensure the passage of the BBL, among other priority measures line up in the legislative mill.

Belmonte said he and other House leaders were scheduled to meet today (Thursday) with their Senate counterparts   on Thursday   to discuss the chances of passing other remaining priority measures.

Earlier, several lawmakers led by Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez cautioned his colleagues against hastily passing an infirmed Bangsamoro Basic Law as Congress listed the pet bill of President Benigno Aquino III as a priority measure.

Romualdez said the House should not allow to get pressured by Malacañang to hasten the passage of the BBL this December without making lawmakers review, study and scrutinize the peace measure.       

“Our colleagues 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, a lawyer and president of the Philippine Constitution Association, the oldest and respectable association of legal luminaries in the country.

The Romualdez-led Philconsa filed before the Supreme Court a 26-page petition seeking to declare as unconstitutional the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro that the government has entered into with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

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