House members see no conflict in ongoing BBL and Cha-Cha work

January 29, 2018

House Members Monday saw no conflict in the efforts of the chamber to approve the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and charter change initiatives to effect a federal form of government, among others.

Deputy Speaker and Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia and Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte said in a bi-monthly press briefing they see no conflict in the BBL and Cha-cha efforts of the House.

Garcia said as charter change is concerned, where the country shall be shifting from a unitary to a federal form of government, this may strengthen the BBL or what may be passed on March 21.

“When under a federal system of government, more powers may be given to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region within the parameters, the confines set by what would then be the Constitution that the people shall adopt through a plebiscite,” said Garcia.

Asked if the provisions of the BBL could be adopted in charter change, Garcia said that could not  be the case because the BBL was being drawn up within the confines only of the 1987 Constitution.

“If you would notice, we are not calling this the Bangsamoro State. We are calling this the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Now, it cannot be the other way around... If we want a Bangsamoro State, then let us amend the Constitution. If we cannot make it by May of this year, then certainly by 2019 in May,” said Garcia.

Garcia said the subcommittee created by the Committee on Muslim Affairs and Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity had agreed to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and acknowledged its purpose, which is “to establish the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in accordance with the provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution".

“Now, the sub-committee has decided to refer to the mother committee the more contentious provisions of the bills creating the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, such as the scope of exclusive powers of the BAR government, the provision on inland waters, and the Bangsamoro Justice System,” said Garcia.

Garcia said, the sub-committee agreed to get the opinion of concerned agencies, such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other uniformed services with respect to their role in relation to the authorities of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region government. The subcommittee also sought to get the input of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) on certain provisions of the new BBL, she said.

"President Duterte has acknowledged that there may be some constitutional hurdles. Where there may be some constitutional hurdles to be addressed, these have now been referred back to the mother committee. But what has been agreed on is to create the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Now, we would imagine the passage of this bill, which will now harmonize the four bills that have been filed would still be within the parameters set by the 1987 Constitution. Since the target for the BBL is March 21 before we adjourn,” said Garcia.

Dimaporo, one of the authors of four bills seeking the BBL creation, said the approval of the BBL and charter change were not inter-related and  it did not matter which gets approved first.

“ As far as Congress is concerned, this was a promise of the President to the Filipino people, to the Bangsamoro people…his promise to deliver the BBL. So therefore, Congress is working as hard as possible so that the President can deliver his promise,” said Dimaporo.

The same thing holds true with charter change, said Dimaporo.

“So they are not interrelated. We work independently of one another - the committee tackling the BBL and the committee tackling charter change. We have no coordination whatsoever. We focus on our specific tasks,” he said.

He said the un-constitutional provisions of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) version were identified in the subcommittee level. On the other hand, the  constitutionally-acceptable language is embedded in the bill of Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and in the 16th Congress version.

“So more or less, at the top of my mind, we retained 50 percent of the BTC version. The remaining 50 percent, it’s either we adopt the GMA version or the 16th Congress version,” he said.

One of the concerns in the proposed BBL was that under the BTC version, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would be under the control of the Bangsamoro government, he said.

“What we’re asking for is that the Comelec will be directly under the control of Comelec national government. It’s just a simple manner of wording, the way it is written under the BTC version, the Bangsamoro government acts like a sub-state. They control their own Comelec, they control their own human rights, they control their own justice system, when we feel that according to our existing Constitution, that should be under the control of the national government and not under the control of a sub-state. We’d like to word it fairly so that it will comply with the existing Constitution,” said Dimaporo.

Dimaporo said the subcommittee on the BBL was created last year around December. It had meeting before the year ended. When Congress resumed session this year, he said they were expecting to finish the sub-committee's work sometime by February.

“But within one week, four meetings (were held) and we were able to finish the work of the subcommittee. So now thiscoming Wednesday,  we will be tackling the Bangsamoro Basic Law in the mother committee already.  We are actually ahead of schedule. So it depends (lang) on how lengthy the discussions will be in the mother committee but our tentative target is to approve it in the plenary before we adjourn this coming March,” said Dimaporo. DMS