House seeks to harmonize BBL bills

December 8, 2017

The House committee on local government, in a joint meeting with the committee on Muslin affairs and committee on peace, reconciliation and unity, created a sub-committee that will harmonize all four bills proposing a basic law for the Bangsamoro, a press statement from the Lower House said Friday,

The sub-committee, to be chaired by Rep. Wilter Wee Palma II of Zamboanga Sibugay and represented by at least three members each from the three committees, will come up with a working draft bill based on House Bill 6475, 92, 6121 and 6263 authored by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Deputy Speaker Bai Sandra Sinsuat Sema of Maguindanao), Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga and Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte, respectively.

The four bills seek to provide for the BBL and abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). They seek to repeal Republic Act 9054, entitled “An Act to Strengthen and Expand the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao” and RA 6374 entitled “An Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao”.

The three committees this week held an initial deliberation on the BBL proposals where the creation of a sub-committee, which would harmonize the four bills, was approved.

Rep. Pedro Acharon Jr. of South Cotabato with General Santos City, chairman of the committee on local government, said the bills seek to grant the autonomous region of Mindanao more flexibility, a wider range of authority in politics, economy and finance.

“This is to accord the people in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao the opportunity to chart their own future within the ambit of our constitution,” said Acharon.

He said the measures are specific to the quest for autonomy of Muslim Mindanao and yet had a significant impact as well as on the economy, finance and politics of the whole country.

Rep. Ruby Sahali of Tawi-Tawi, chairperson of the committee on peace, reconciliation and unity, said the enactment of the BBL law is essential to solve the Bangsamoro conflict and achieve the aspiration of peace and development in Mindanao and in the whole country.

“Let us make sure that the law we’re going to legislate will be all-inclusive, meaning all the peoples’ rights within the Bangsamoro will be upheld, our dignity and cultures will be preserved and will remain intact,” Sahali said.

Rep. Mauyag Papandayan of Lanao del Sur, chairman of the committee on Muslim Affairs, said the establishment of the Bangsamoro political entity is envisioned to address the Bangsamoro people’s long-held clamor for a genuine and meaningful governance in self-determination based on their distinct historical identity in their ancestral homeland.

“This will put to rest the decade-old armed conflict between the Bangsamoro areas and those of adjacent geographical areas in the island of Mindanao,” he said. Macapagal-Arroyo said her BBL bill is the Senate version in the previous Congress.

“I decided that I would file the Senate version so that we can continue the deliberation where the government left off, where the legislators left off in the previous Congress,” she said.

Macapagal-Arroyo said many of the provisions in the BBL Senate version can again be adjusted because the Senate version took into account the constitutionality issue.

Dimaporo described his bill as a solo or a stand-alone bill. He said he filed the bill for the purpose of putting on record the perspective of Lanao del Norte.

“Our perspective in Lanao del Norte is that the BBL does not only belong to the people inside the Bangsamoro territory. The Bangsamoro Basic Law belongs to all of us in Mindanao. All of us have to benefit from the BBL,” said Dimaporo. DMS