3 provinces want out of Bangsamoro area

From The Standard (Jun 20): 3 provinces want out of Bangsamoro area

THREE provinces and four cities want out of the Bangsamoro territory as they are being “compelled to be part of it against their will,” officials of the Philippine Constitution Association and two administration lawmakers said Friday.

The provinces of Palawan, Zamboanga and Lanao del Norte and the cities of Palawan, Zamboanga, Cotabato and Isabela had already voted No four times to reject their inclusion in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Philconsa president and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said.

Palawan Rep. Frederick Abueg and Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat have demanded that the House plenary declare in the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law the explicit exclusion of the province and city of Palawan and the province and city of Zamboanga from the Bangsamoro political entity.

Philconsa officials also denounced the government’s decision to “expand the core territories by compelling these areas to be part of the Bangsamoro territory against their will.”

“The BBL also expanded the core territories that included the cities of Cotabato and Isabela and the province of Lanao del Norte against their will,” Romualdez said.

Abueg and Lobregat claim that their provinces and cities have already voted an overwhelming No in the plebiscites for the ARMM.

“These provinces and cities all voted No four times but the results of the voting were not included in the BBL,” said Romualdez, the leader of the House Independent Minority Bloc.

“The people of Palawan vehemently oppose the inclusion of the Province of Palawan and the City of Puerto Princesa in the Bangsamoro Entity,” said Abueg, the author of House Resolution 2130 seeking the province’s exclusion from the Bangsamoro political entity.

Abueg and Lobregat have been listed among the 33 lawmakers that will interpellate the sponsors, led by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the House special ad hoc committee on the BBL.

Abueg also said that in the past committee meetings of the Ad Hoc panel, he had already moved and raised the deletion of the phrase “including Palawan” in the definition of “Bangsamoro people” in Section 1, Article II of the BBL, originally House Bill 4994 that is now HB 5811, the substitute bill.

Just like Abueg, Lobregat wants to insert the provision “except Zamboanga City,” but his motion was lost in the 75-member and Liberal Party-dominated panel.

Romualdez and Philconsa chairman and former Justice Manuel Lazaro came out with a 74-page study that found some of the provisions in the BBL to be “legally infirm.”

“We have done so in the past and we shall do so again: the people of Palawan consistently resist the inclusion of the province in any entity, such as the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, in four successive plebiscites held during the time of then Presidents Marcos, Aquino and Ramos, wherein the negative votes there from cast were more than eighty-five percent of the total voters,” Abueg insisted.

 “Considering the recent developments on the BBL, it is surprising when particular provisions, which have already been amended during the previous deliberations, were reflected in the latest working draft of the Bangsamoro bill,” the Palawan lawmaker said.

 In the Philconsa study, Romualdez and Lazaro said the municipalities of Balai, Munai, Nunungan, Pantar, Tagoloan, and Tangkal in the province of Lanao del Norrte and all other barangays in the municipalities of Kabacan, Carmen, Aleosan, Pigkawayan, Pikit and Midsayap voted No to ARMM inclusion.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/06/20/3-provinces-want-out-of-bangsamoro-area/