After a month’s unsuccessful attempts by the government
(GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels to come up with a
“mutually acceptable” draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the Office of the
President, particularly the Executive Secretary, has taken over the
finalization of the draft with the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), the
body that drafted the BBL.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa took over noon of August
10, the last of the 10-day “workshop” of the GPH and MILF panels at the
Waterfront Insular Hotel here, meeting separately with the government and MILF
peace panel chairs, averting what would have been yet another unsuccessful
fourth workshop after the unsuccessful three workshops totaling 11 days in July
in Kuala Lumpur and Manila.
Early evening of August 10, the GPH and MILF peace panels
met with the press and although they sounded uncomfortable when asked about
specifics, announced a date – “August 18, 2014, in sha Allah” — for them to
“finish an agreed draft Bangsamoro Basic Law.”
The peace panels got involved in the crafting of a “mutually
acceptable” draft BBL when the MILF-chaired BTC (composed of eight
commissioners from the MILF and seven from the GPH), passed a resolution on
July 3 elevating to the panels its concerns over the Malacanang-proposed
revisions to the 97-page draft BBL it submitted to the Palace on April 22.
At the start of the 10-day Davao “workshop” on August 1,
government peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer had told MindaNews that the
panel believes the outcome of the “workshop” should be returned to the BTC
because it was the BTC that gave them the panels the mandate to work on the
draft.
No panel-to-panel meet
There was no formal announcement from both panels that the draft was out of their hands. But after the August 10 announcement that they would “finish an agreed draft” by August 18, there was no panel-to-panel meeting anymore even as both panels were in the same venues — Malagos Garden Resort on August 13 and Marco Polo Hotel on August 14 and 15.
There was no formal announcement from both panels that the draft was out of their hands. But after the August 10 announcement that they would “finish an agreed draft” by August 18, there was no panel-to-panel meeting anymore even as both panels were in the same venues — Malagos Garden Resort on August 13 and Marco Polo Hotel on August 14 and 15.
Ochoa and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Alfredo Benjamin
Sabater Caguioa met with MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal, concurrent BTC
chair, in those three days of exchanges of position papers and conversations
that ended Friday noon, August 15 with a two-paragraph, nine-line Joint
Statement signed by Ochoa and Iqbal as BTC chair.
The Statement announced that they had “concluded discussions
on the various issues” involving the draft BBL “originally drafted by the
Bangsamoro Transition Commission and submitted to the President last April” and
that the parties agreed that “resolutions arrived at by both parties will be
incorporated into the final draft Basic Bangsamoro Law that will be prepared
and submitted to President Benigno S. Aquino III.”
Following this statement, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles told MindaNews that the final draft BBL would be submitted to the President “before end of next week” and to Congress “before end of the month.”
The Ochoa-Iqbal statement of August 15 was not their first.
Two months earlier, Ochoa and Iqbal also issued a statement – a longer one — a
seven paragraph, 23-line “Press Statement on the status of the Draft Bangsamoro
Law” in an attempt to address the restlessness of those awaiting news on the
submission of the draft law to Congress.
“Thorough process of review”
The BTC submitted its draft to Malacanang on April 22,
expecting Malacanang would submit the same to Congress when it resumed sessions
on May 5 after the Holy Week break. But as June 11, the schedule for Congress
to adjourn sine die was fast approaching, it was also getting clearer that
Congress would adjourn without receiving the draft.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita
Quintos-Deles had hinted in her opening remarks at the International Conference
of Cotabato at the Notre Dame University in Cotabato City
She said it was still undergoing a “thorough process of
review” by the Office of the President to ensure Congress gets a “more refined
and strengthened” draft.
The Ochoa-Iqbal statement was dated June 7 but was e-mailed
to the media by Deles’ office afternoon of June 10.
The statement noted that since the signing of the
Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro on March 27, BTC members had been
working on the BBL, “consulting with experts and various stakeholders, and
building consensus among its members” and that the President expects a law that
is “equitable, practical, and empowering, and which serves the interests of the
entire nation.”
“Precious legacy”
The statement acknowledged that the BTC had submitted its draft to Malacanang and that they acknowledge the “urgency behind the immediate passage of the BBL,” that a thorough review of the provisions was necessary “to ensure that these are consistent with what the parties agreed upon in the 17 years of peace negotiation.”
The statement acknowledged that the BTC had submitted its draft to Malacanang and that they acknowledge the “urgency behind the immediate passage of the BBL,” that a thorough review of the provisions was necessary “to ensure that these are consistent with what the parties agreed upon in the 17 years of peace negotiation.”
“At present, efforts have already been made to coordinate
with the Senate and House leadership to ensure that the draft BBL is submitted
to Congress when sessions resume in July,” the June 7 statement real.
“We believe that investing time in this process will redound to the benefit of
all, laying the foundations for peace, prosperity, and progress in Mindanao––a
precious legacy that will be cherished by generations of Filipinos, especially
our Muslim brothers and sisters in Mindanao, for years to come,” it added.
Iqbal had earlier said that there was supposed to have been
a “four-tiered” engagement with the Office of the President on the draft BBL
before its submission to Congress.
The first level was supposed to have been between Ochoa and
the BTC, hence that joint press statement on June 7. The fourth and last level
would have been between President Aquino and Al Haj Murad Ebrahim. Only the
fourth level-engagement happened, the MILF said in an editorial posted on its
website on July 23.
The Malacanang-reviewed draft was handed over to the MILF on
June 21. Iqbal and MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim were shown a copy of the
reviewed draft with Malacanang’s proposed revisions, in Hiroshima
Murad and Iqbal were in Hiroshima
to address The Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao
(COP 6) on June 23 and met with President Aquino on June 24, shortly before the
President addressed the same seminar, where they raised “concerns” over
Malacanang’s proposed revisions.
Murad and Iqbal gave no details about what transpired during
the meeting with the President that day but two days later, on June 26, Iqbal
in a speech in Istanbul , Turkey
http://www.mindanews.com/peace-process/2014/08/17/draft-bangsmoaro-basic-law-out-of-peace-panels-hands-back-to-btc-and-op/
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