There will be no need to pass a Bangsamoro Basic Law under the Duterte administration because it will be part of a shift to a federal form of government through Charter change, incoming Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez said yesterday.
Alvarez said there will be no BBL in the Duterte administration because its concept is the same as federalism which aims to devolve the powers of the national government to the regions by forming states which will have their own sets of laws.
“There will be none, (BBL under the Duterte administration) because it (BBL) will be replaced by federal form of government. It’s the same,” he told the TV program Headstart.
Alvarez, secretary general of PDP-Laban, is Duterte’s personal choice for Speaker in the incoming 17th Congress where he will be pitted against incumbent Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
“This (federalism) is the lasting solution and a solution for everybody,” he said. “If we study the concept of BBL and federalism, it’s the same. Only the names are different. Federalism is even more comprehensive.”
While enacting the BBL is one of Duterte’s many campaign promises, Alvarez said the shift to federalism will provide the long-term solution.
The BBL is being offered by the Aquino administration as the primary solution to the decades of armed conflict between government and secessionist rebels in Mindanao led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Well of course, there’ll be short-term solutions (like BBL) for those problems (the MILF’s call for autonomy) but the long-term solution, which we have long been looking for in Mindanao is the (shift to a) federal form of government,” Alvarez said.
The 16th Congress failed to pass the proposed BBL which is among President Aquino’s legislative priorities, because of stiff opposition to the bill as manifested by the lack of warm bodies on the floor.
The proposed BBL seeks to abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao by creating a new Bangsamoro region which will be given additional autonomy.
Among the bill’s provisions, congressmen are mostly against the “opt-in” provision which allows neighboring territories to propose their inclusion in the proposed autonomous region through a petition of at least 10 percent of the residents and approval by a majority of qualified voters in the city or province in a separate plebiscite.
The measure would have given flesh to the government’s comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro with the MILF.
‘TAKEN FOR A RIDE’
A lawyer, Alvarez said the MILF was clearly “taken for a ride” by the Aquino administration when it promised to them the BBL.
He said it would have been impossible for the measure to stand constitutional test in the Supreme Court because its provisions cannot be implemented without changes in the Constitution.“How can you implement the provisions of the BBL without amending the Constitution? You cannot do it because there are provisions in the BBL that run contrary to the provisions of the Constitution,” he said.
Alvarez said constitutional amendments should have been undertaken “to provide what’s inside the provisions of BBL.”
‘HAPPINESS AND MISERY’
Alvarez said the Duterte administration is pushing for a shift to a unicameral parliamentary-federal form of government and would leave it to the framers of the Constitution which model to adopt.
“There are a lot of models. One is federal-parliamentary and another is federal-parliamentary and yet you have a president directly elected by the people,” he explained.
Under the current unitary form of government, Alvarez lamented that “all incomes of provinces or regions are remitted to the central government which is Manila.”
“And central government will allocate funds in favor of respective provinces so it’s the central government that determines the happiness and misery of the regions,” he said.
Under a federal system, Alvarez said, provinces and regions will be allowed to keep 75 to 80 percent of their incomes and remit just about 25 percent to the central federal government “for its upkeep.”
“That’s how it’s going to be because the national government retains national defense and foreign affairs,” said Alvarez.
In the current system, taxes collected from regions go to the national government which allocates the funds through Congress. The local government units receive their share of internal revenue allocation.
Alvarez said that in the proposed federal setup, a state shall be composed of provinces.
“For example, (the) Davao region (becomes a state). Davao region is a very rich region so it can subsidize the operations of its provinces. Now the neighboring regions that are poor, it can be absorbed by Davao and subsidized,” he said.
http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/no-bbl-under-duterte-gov%E2%80%99t
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