House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Sunday he would work double time to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law on third and final reading before Congress adjourns on June 2.
“We are going to approve the peace bill this week. We already requested the President [Rodrigo Duterte] to certify the matter as an urgent measure,” Alvarez said.
He said Congress could still call for a session until Friday just to pass the BBL.
On May 22, the Bangsamoro Transition Commission requested Congress to give them until today [Monday] to respond to the undisclosed amendments on the measure.
Such was an offshoot of an executive meeting also held on that day attended by the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, Alvarez, Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, the heads of the House joint committees on local government represented by Rep. Pedro Acharon, Muslim Affairs by Rep. Mauyag Papandayan, and the special panel on peace, reconciliation and unity led by Rep. Ruby Sahali to iron out the final version of the bill.
In a May 23 letter, they assured the President of the timely passage of the measure.
"We are, once again, respectfully requesting House Bill 6457 be certified as urgent by your administration,” those who attended the meeting said.
“We aim to pass the said measure on third and final reading before the sine die adjournment of Congress on June 2. Thus, we are hoping for your usual support as we work for the prompt passage of this law.”
Fariñas, House committee on rules chairman, did not disclose some details of the proposed amendments.
“We should work together to make sure this bill is as airtight as possible as President Duterte’s administration has put much work and effort into this measure. We all do not want to see it wasted just because of a fatal oversight,” Rep. Rolando Andaya said in a statement.
He expressed concern that Section 1 of Article 12 of HB 6475, or the fiscal autonomy of the
Bangsamoro, was unconstitutional according to existing jurisprudence.
He said fiscal autonomy was granted by the Constitution and could not be superseded by a law passed even by Congress.
“It is a constitutional grant and cannot be attained by the membership. This is the ruling of the Supreme Court on the power of fiscal autonomy,” Andaya said.