PhL to constitute commission to draft Bangsamoro law

From the Philippine Star (Jan 31): PhL to constitute commission to draft Bangsamoro law

The government will form a "balanced" 15-man Transition Commission (TransCom), which will draft the Bangsamoro Basic Law for southern Muslim region, a senior government official said today.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles said that the Commission "shall have gender, ethnic and generational balance." "This is to ensure that voices of all Bangsamoro stakeholders, including women, indigenous peoples, and the youth, will be part of the TransCom that will craft the Basic Law," she said.

Once drafted, the Bangsamoro Basic Law will be certified urgent by President Benigno Aquino III and submitted to Congress for passage. It will undergo a plebiscite in the envisioned core territory of the Bangsamoro.

Upon ratification, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is deemed abolished, according to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), which the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group in the country, signed in October last year.

Deles said that the government nominees to the TransCom have been processed by the Search Committee and are expected to be submitted to the President very soon.

The MILF officially submitted their list of nominees to the government peace panel on the first day of the 35th Formal Exploratory Talks held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Jan. 21-25, 2013.

Meanwhile, Philippine President Aquino has appointed Mehol Sadain, chairman of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos and former Elections commissioner as a member of the government's negotiating panel with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Sadain will fill the vacancy left by the appointment of Miriam Coronel-Ferrer as panel chairman. Ferrer was appointed head of the panel after chief negotiator Marvic Leonen became Supreme Court justice.

There was no word so far on who will replace Sadain at the NCMF, an agency attached to the Office of the President.

The MILF has been fighting government troops for decades to establish a self-rule Muslim state in the south of the predominantly Catholic country.

http://www.philstar.com/breaking-news/2013/01/31/903521/phl-constitute-commission-draft-bangsamoro-law