'CASUALTIES' OF MAMASAPANO?: Senate drops 2 provisions, amends 1, in draft BBL

From InterAksyon (Apr 13): 'CASUALTIES' OF MAMASAPANO?: Senate drops 2 provisions, amends 1, in draft BBL

Two important provisions - described in some quarters as casualties of the Mamasapano incident - will be dropped, and a third one amended, by the Senate Committee on Local Government from the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said on Monday.

 

In his press briefing after the resumption of the public hearing on the proposed measure, Marcos identified two of the three provisions as:

 

That allowing the creation of the Bangsamoro political entity's own constitutional bodies such as the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Commission on  Audit (COA)) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC);

That allowing the creation of a Bangsamoro Police Force.

The third provision will be amended, in order to limit the draft BBL's wealth-sharing provision in order to give local government units (LGUs) their share in the national income. Marcos explained this needs to be done in order to avert a situation where the new entity could hog all of the share in the national income and leaving the LGUs holding the proverbial empty bag.

Pledge of allegiance

Meanwhile, Marcos also said that he would put back a provision in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) organic law, which was taken out in the draft BBL, regarding the "pledge of allegiance" to the Republic of the Philippines and 1987 Constitution.

"I will introduce it as an amendment. Now we return to BBL the provision in the ARMM organic law that they continue to pledge allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines and that it will not be used as a first step for secession," Marcos said.

BBL not a magic pill

Marcos also said that in the event the draft BBL will be enacted into law, it should not be expected to solve all the problems besetting Mindanao, since there are other armed groups terrorizing the island.

"I think that is our point that has been already raised, that we have raised many times. We go back and we have said that we have to take another perspective on this, and understand that BBL in and of itself is not that magic bullet, or magic pill that will fix all our problems. There are still many other issues that must be discussed," Marcos said.

Marcos said that only massive development programs should be initiated by the national government in Mindanao, which was done by his late father's administration after the signing of the Tripoli Agreement in 1976.

He said that, together with the signing of the Tripoli Agreement, massive infrastructure development programs were initiated in Mindanao.

"And that is part of what we are trying to achieve. That is why we are training our radar on the massive lump sums for the Bangsamoro, which should be implemented by the central government."

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/108708/casualties-of-mamasapano-senate-drops-2-provisions-amends-1-in-draft-bbl