The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) submitted to Congress by His Excellency President Benigno Aquino III during a historic ceremony in Malacañang Palace on September 10 is an “agreed version” between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after long, tense, exhausting hours, days, weeks, and months of intensive discussion and bargaining.
During the defining moment, which actually was a make-or-break engagement, it involved no less than Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, on the part of government, and Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) and chair of the MILF Peace Panel, and initially Professor Abhoud Syed Lingga, a member of the MILF Peace Panel, and later succeeded by BTC Commissioner and legal consultant of the MILF Peace Panel, Raissa Jajurie, on the part of the MILF. BTC Executive Director Mike Pasigan, who is one of only two persons in the MILF continuously involved in the GPH-MILF peace negotiation since 1997, was the note-taker on the side of the MILF. (The other mainstay in this peace negotiation is Jun Mantawil, head of Secretariat of the MILF Peace Panel).
In brevity, the BBL required legislative act of Congress, which, even without saying, has plenary power over legislation. It is in this sense that members of Congress, both the Senate and Lower House, should rise above themselves and act as statesmen and pass the BBL with utmost consideration that the text had already been agreed by the Parties. It is our wish and prayer, therefore, that what eventually passes through Congress is a legislated agreement on the basis of the letter and spirit of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), its four Annexes, and the Addendum on Bangsamoro Waters, as jointly determined and agreed by the GPH and MILF now captured by the BBL and presented to Congress.
In fairness, the joint GPH-BTC briefing in the Senate on September 23 demonstrated the high sense of knowledge, decorum and sensibilities of the senators present, led by the chair of the committee, Senator Bong Bong Marcos, as well as Senators Koko Pimentel, JB Estrada, and Pia Cayetano. In the House on the next day, Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, showed his strong leadership and mastery of the parliamentary procedures to set the hearing effectively intact after almost six hours of grueling session. Except for Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong, Congresswoman Bai Sandra Sema, and Congressman Mangudadatu, who obviously held their comments out of delicadeza, all the other congressmen and congresswomen participated actively. Even Congressman Celso Lobregat, who is known for his anti-Moro stances and who spoke more than any of the congressmen and congresswomen present, courtesy of other congressmen who yielded to him their five-minute slots to ask questions, had also stressed that he is for peace and for the passage of the BBL. Only Congresswoman Aurora Ceriles of Zamboanga Del Sur spoke vehemently against the passage of the bill. For what reason, maybe she is just parroting the comments made by Governor Antonio Ceriles, (her husband or father?) made during an interview that there are no Moros in his province.
In this engagement with Congress, there is an understanding of the Parties that since the BBL is an administration bill and is groomed to be the legacy of the President, the Office of the President (OP) should take the lead in the legal defense of the BBL in Congress. The BTC will only assume the role of a junior partner, being legally speaking; it is under the OP created through Executive Order No. 120. (The MILF Peace Panel and members of the MILF Central Committee cannot participate openly in the deliberations for obvious reasons).
The sensitivity here in this engagement with Congress is that if the statements made for the record is a personal annotation of the BBL or not the nuances, contexts, and issues settled or agreed by the parties especially during the crucial engagements on August 10, 13-15, 25, 26, and September 4 during the meeting between President Aquino and Chairman Murad in the Palace, then the consequence: Congress would not be guided accordingly. It can also contribute to watering down the proposed bill.
Our appeal to Congress is to refer to the text of the BBL whenever statements or views made by any of the resource persons in order to be guided accordingly; or perhaps, this can be further fine-tuned by talking to people who were privy to the discussions especially during the dying minutes of the hard engagement. Contexts, or even unwritten agreements, are almost as important as text of the agreement itself.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/editorial/item/1229-deliberation-of-bbl-in-congress
In brevity, the BBL required legislative act of Congress, which, even without saying, has plenary power over legislation. It is in this sense that members of Congress, both the Senate and Lower House, should rise above themselves and act as statesmen and pass the BBL with utmost consideration that the text had already been agreed by the Parties. It is our wish and prayer, therefore, that what eventually passes through Congress is a legislated agreement on the basis of the letter and spirit of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), its four Annexes, and the Addendum on Bangsamoro Waters, as jointly determined and agreed by the GPH and MILF now captured by the BBL and presented to Congress.
In fairness, the joint GPH-BTC briefing in the Senate on September 23 demonstrated the high sense of knowledge, decorum and sensibilities of the senators present, led by the chair of the committee, Senator Bong Bong Marcos, as well as Senators Koko Pimentel, JB Estrada, and Pia Cayetano. In the House on the next day, Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, showed his strong leadership and mastery of the parliamentary procedures to set the hearing effectively intact after almost six hours of grueling session. Except for Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong, Congresswoman Bai Sandra Sema, and Congressman Mangudadatu, who obviously held their comments out of delicadeza, all the other congressmen and congresswomen participated actively. Even Congressman Celso Lobregat, who is known for his anti-Moro stances and who spoke more than any of the congressmen and congresswomen present, courtesy of other congressmen who yielded to him their five-minute slots to ask questions, had also stressed that he is for peace and for the passage of the BBL. Only Congresswoman Aurora Ceriles of Zamboanga Del Sur spoke vehemently against the passage of the bill. For what reason, maybe she is just parroting the comments made by Governor Antonio Ceriles, (her husband or father?) made during an interview that there are no Moros in his province.
In this engagement with Congress, there is an understanding of the Parties that since the BBL is an administration bill and is groomed to be the legacy of the President, the Office of the President (OP) should take the lead in the legal defense of the BBL in Congress. The BTC will only assume the role of a junior partner, being legally speaking; it is under the OP created through Executive Order No. 120. (The MILF Peace Panel and members of the MILF Central Committee cannot participate openly in the deliberations for obvious reasons).
The sensitivity here in this engagement with Congress is that if the statements made for the record is a personal annotation of the BBL or not the nuances, contexts, and issues settled or agreed by the parties especially during the crucial engagements on August 10, 13-15, 25, 26, and September 4 during the meeting between President Aquino and Chairman Murad in the Palace, then the consequence: Congress would not be guided accordingly. It can also contribute to watering down the proposed bill.
Our appeal to Congress is to refer to the text of the BBL whenever statements or views made by any of the resource persons in order to be guided accordingly; or perhaps, this can be further fine-tuned by talking to people who were privy to the discussions especially during the dying minutes of the hard engagement. Contexts, or even unwritten agreements, are almost as important as text of the agreement itself.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/editorial/item/1229-deliberation-of-bbl-in-congress
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