The signing of the Annex on Power Sharing on December 8 by the GPH and MILF Negotiating Panels is now hastening the pace of works in the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), especially in the committee levels, as the third of four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) brings with it the awaited “details on the particular competencies and authorities of the Central Government and the Bangsamoro Government.”
BTC Commissioner Maulana Alonto, chairman of the Committee on Political Autonomy, admitted during the said committee’s First Crafting Workshop on December 27 and 28 that about 70 percent of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be within the scope of the committee he leads. The two-day activity heralded the initial crafting of the BBL.
Alonto clarified though that the workshop is not intended yet to “draft the draft” of the BBL since the other standing committees of the BTC have to complete their respective works first and thereafter be harmonized, incorporated and fused into what the Committee on Political Autonomy has initially started.
The month of December alone has seen the conduct of public consultation and sessions with experts by the other standing committees.
The Committee on Basic Rights, Culture, Social Justice and Indigenous Peoples’ Concern, being chaired by former Sulu Congressman Asani Tammang, held a public consultation on December 19 in Cotabato City which was attended largely by indigenous peoples belonging to the Teduray-Lambangian ethnic groups.
A week earlier in Ateneo de Davao University, the Committee on Transitory Provisions, Amendments, Revisions, & Miscellaneous Matters headed by Commissioner Johaira Wahab generated public opinions from a wide range of sectors. A session with experts who came from the academe and ARMM was also held a day before the said public consultation, the second one for that committee. Issues and concerns on the Bangsamoro Transition Authority was the subject of both the consultation and the engagement with selected experts.
In Marawi City on December 9 the Committee on Justice and Security also called for a public hearing wherein the venue proved too small for the more three hundred individuals who showed up for the consultation.
Two days before that, the Committee on Fiscal Autonomy held in Cotabato City its public consultation. The committee is headed by Commissioner Raissa Jajurie.
BTC Chairman Mohagher Iqbal, who was able to drop by at the crafting workshop, reiterated Comm. Alonto’s remarks that majority of the contents of BBL would be coming from inputs of the Committee on Political Autonomy. He stressed that much work in a short timeline poses a difficult challenge for the said committee. By April 2014 the draft of the BBL must have been completed.
Iqbal expressed confidence that the “collective wisdom of both Houses of Congress” would lead them into passing the BBL as drafted by the BTC.
The BTC has 6 standing committees and a Coordination Committee. Aside from the plenary and committee sessions, the 15-man commission regularly engages the services of chosen experts in various fields and conducts public hearings or consultations to allow concerned sectors in expressing their sentiments and opinions. BTC upholds the principles of inclusivity and transparency in its works.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/742-annex-on-power-sharing-speed-up-works-of-btc-committees
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