'No BBL better than a mangled BBL' - chief govt negotiator

From InterAksyon (Mar 6): 'No BBL better than a mangled BBL' - chief govt negotiator



Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles at a Senate hearing on Mamasapano. (file)

The government’s chief negotiator to peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front cautioned lawmakers against deleting what they perceive to be unconstitutional provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law lest they mangle the measure beyond saving.

"No BBL is better than a mangled BBL, because that is repeating history, and it is stupid to repeat history. That's not the kind of difference that we wanted to make here," Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said at a forum in Makati City Thursday to discuss the effects of the January 25 Mamasapano incident on the Mindanao peace process.

Congress suspended deliberations on the proposed BBL, which would create a new autonomous homeland in accordance with the peace agreement between government and the MILF, after the clashes that broke out during the Special Action Force mission to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” left 44 police commandos, 18 MILF fighters and at least five civilians dead.

While lawmakers say they will resume discussing the BBL, they have also maintained that the proposed law will need to undergo substantial revision if it is to stand any chance of passage.

And Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, who chairs the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee tackling the BBL, has stood firm that some “unconstitutional” provisions would be removed.

However, at the Makati forum, Ferrer said: "A mangled BBL is the same history; no BBL, then let's look for other alternatives. We are still aiming for a good enough BBL (and) then we continue to work for the reforms later on."

At a separate talk to participants of a conflict reporting training sponsored by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Ferrer said the questioned provisions in the BBL “can be remedied. Maybe we can revise it, instead of deleting it.”

'Not dummies to be led'

But Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. disagreed with Ferrer.

"I don't think so. They may actually consider it like that from their point of view, but from our point of view it was not the case," he said, adding that he “was not happy” with Ferrer’s statement.

He also stressed that lawmakers are carefully scrutinizing the measure and that members of the House ad hoc committee have, in fact, had a chance to personally study the situation in other countries where autonomous regions have been created.

"They are not dummies who can be led around, of course, they also have a background on what things are," the Speaker said.

The 75-member ad hoc committee had so far held 36 public hearings and executive sessions on the BBL before suspending proceedings after Mamasapano.

Rodriguez said they would resume executive sessions on the BBL after the House receives a copy of the report of the board of inquiry on Mamasapano created by the Philippine National Police.

'Unconstitutional'

Among the provisions in the draft law that he said should go are:

• The Bangsamoro auditing body which shall have auditing responsibility over public funds utilized by the Bangsamoro Government without prejudice to the power, authority, and duty of the national Commission on Audit to examine, audit, and settle all accounts pertaining to the revenues and the use of funds and property owned and held in trust by any government instrumentality, including GOCCs (Article V, Section 2, Number 7) 
• The Bangsamoro Civil Service Office which shall develop and administer Bangsamoro government employees and officers without prejudice to the Civil Service Commission’s powers (Article V, Section 2, Number 8) 
• The Bangsamoro Electoral Office which shall be part of the Commission on Elections (Article VII, Section 9) 
• The Bangsamoro Police which shall be part of the Philippine National Police (Article XVI, Section 2) 
• The Bangsamoro Commission on Human Rights (BCHR) which shall have investigatory and prosecutorial powers; In the performance of its functions, the BCHR may coordinate with the Commission on Human Rights (Article IX, Section 7)
• The Bangsamoro Regional Police Board which shall be part of the NAPOLCOM (National Police Commission) and will perform the functions of the NAPOLCOM in the region (Article XVI, Sections 5, 6)

"If they don't revise it, we're going to scratch it," Rodriguez said.

Subsidiary bodies

However, government peace panel member Senen Bacani explained that the units to be created under the Bangsamoro government would only be "subsidiary bodies" of constitutional bodies and national agencies.

"The intent here is for these units to assist, to be part of, and not (be) independent of the constitutional bodies. There's no way that we want to replace the powers and functions and authority of these constitutional bodies," he said in an interview.

"If we need to reword (the provisions), then we would so that there would be no misinterpretation. The important thing is for the Bangsamoro to have subsidiary bodies to help them exercise good governance," Bacani added.

But Rodriguez said the functions of these bodies in relation to the Bangsamoro government should be clarified.

"Congress cannot intervene with the actuations and policies of COA and Comelec, for example. If they want, the executive can go to the commissions and be able to have some arrangements on how the operation will be done," he added.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/106369/no-bbl-better-than-a-mangled-bbl---chief-govt-negotiator