Palace to submit Bagsamoro law to Congress next week

From the Business World (Aug 22): Palace to submit Bagsamoro law to Congress next week

MALACAÑANG is hoping to submit the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law to Congress next week, a Palace official said yesterday. President Benigno S.C. Aquino III is set to certify the bill as urgent to fast-track legislative action on the measure which will create a new political entity in Mindanao.

In an interview on Friday, Presidential Spokesman Edwin S. Lacierda said the President has started the review of the draft bill and “is going through it with close coordination” with government peace panel chairwoman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa who attended the talks between the peace panels in Davao last week.

“We hope to submit the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law within the month of August,” he said.

“Right now, he’s just going through it. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see his impression and if he still wants something done about the draft after the review. Between now and then, we are hoping that we will be able to submit the draft Bangsomoro Basic Law within the agreed timeline,” he added.

The Palace spokesman noted that should the Office of the President introduce any amendments to the draft law -- submitted by the peace panels to Malacanang on Wednesday night -- it would only involve few provisions.

“Well, whatever the Palace inputs are... my understanding from Chair Ferrer is that they were able to come up with at least a big percentage of the draft. So, if there are parts that needs to be studied... They defer to the President to take a look, one final review of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law. And... we’ll see,” Mr. Lacierda said.

“The bulk of it has already been agreed upon by both panels. More than 70% have been agreed upon so we are looking at a few provisions that would still need the President’s observation,” he added.

The Bangsamoro Basic Law -- the intended outcome of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on March 27 -- serves to establish a new political region for the Bangsamoro people that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The draft law, among others, will embody provisions contained in the CAB particularly on wealth and power-sharing between the national government and the new Bangsamoro government.

The government earlier expressed optimism the draft law could still be passed within the year as earlier scheduled, to be followed by a plebiscite in 2015 and elections for officials to oversee the Bangsamoro government in 2016.

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