Thursday, July 31, 2014

MILF: Bangsamoro Basic Law contains provisions culled from public consultations

From the MILF Website (Jul 31): Bangsamoro Basic Law contains provisions culled from public consultations

ibrahim lai

A member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) clarified that at least 10-15 percent or even more of the provisions of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) were inputs culled from its own public consultation and from those conducted by civil society organizations.

“The people need to be informed and engaged and their views or recommendations reflected in the BBL. We also consulted international experts especially on governance and fiscal matters.”

This was the statement of Commissioner Ibrahim Ali released to Luwaran, which is obviously in response to those who claimed that the BBL crafted by the BTC contained provisions not directly expressed in the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes.

He also disclosed that most of the recommendations concerned women, indigenous peoples, children, and labor and they appeared on the Article on Basic Rights.

He also said that Executive Order No. 120 signed for the President by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., which legally created the BTC had made public consultation as one of its functions

The Mindanao Civil Society Organization Platform for Peace (MCSOPP) and the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) had held about 700 consultations throughout Mindanao and other parts of the country. The Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) and Conciliation Resources (CR), which have entered into memoranda of agreement with the BTC, also contributed a lot to make these public consultations truly deliberative and genuine.

The CR has ten partner organizations which operated on the ground in relation to public consultations.

Other international bodies, which also invested heavily on peace especially in public engagements, included The Asia Foundation, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United Nations-World Bank through their new technical assistance program called Facility for Advisory Support for Transition Capacities (FASTRAC).

FASTRAC will assist the MILF and the Government of the Philippines in building capacity to address key issues for the Bangsamoro such as governance, justice, combatant transition and security. Priority areas of support will be determined by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, MILF, and the Philippine government. FASTRAC will provide on-demand access to a pool of experts, training, policy advice, research and international exchanges.

Ali also explained that the BTC was mandated by the government and MILF Peace Panels through the FAB and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) to provide details to many issues that were not addressed in either of the two documents.

He cited, among other things, the issues of the block grant, transportation and communication, special development fund, electoral system in the Bangsamoro, and composition of the Bangsamoro Transition

http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1117-bangsamoro-basic-law-contains-provisions-culled-from-public-consultations

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