MILF warns no BLBAR, no disarmament deal

From the Daily Tribune (Dec 18): MILF warns no BLBAR, no disarmament deal

After the Palace raised the possibility of the rise of Muslim militancy, now comes the threat of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that it will not lay down more arms if the controversial Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR) is not passed.

Failure of Congress to pass the BLBAR would freeze the agreement to decommission firearms of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said.

In a chance interview, Iqbal said that the decommissioning process would also be stalled as provided for in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

He said that the decommissioning process and the proposed Bangsamoro law should proceed simultaneously.

The proposed Bangsamoro law — the fruit of the CAB — will create the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region which will be governed by the Bangsamoro Parliament that will be elected by the people within the region. 

“Of course (it was delayed) because the decommissioning is tied up with political milestones,” Iqbal said.

“If the Bangsamoro law is passed and ratified, 30 percent of the decommissioning process will be completed. If it moves to third phase or the organization and operationalization of the Bangsamoro police, then another 35 percent of our forces will be decommissioned. The final 35 percent will be decommissioned once all agreements between the parties are implemented,” Iqbal added, referring to the government and the MILF.

Last June, the MILF deactivated only over 75 weapons, including 55 high-powered arms. In the same ceremony witnessed by President Aquino and Iqbal in Maguindanao, the MILF also decommissioned 145 out of its 10,000 armed forces identified as Bangsamoro Islamic Forces.

Under the proposed Bangsamoro law, the proposed Bangsamoro Region will also be receiving an annual block grant which is 2.4 percent of the national tax collection, a Special Development Fund worth P17 billion (P7 billion initially and P2 billion for the next five years) and a P1 billion transition fund for the infrastructure construction and rehabilitation work.

The Bangsamoro measure has recently hurdled the period of debate. The next stage is the period of amendments.

Lawmakers are afraid that the bill will not be approved by the 16th Congress.

They said there are only three weeks left for them to approve the bill before Congress adjourns before the campaign period.

Drilon says BLBAR still kicking

Hope springs eternal for President Aquino’s top ally, Senate President Franklin Drilon, as he disputed Sen. Ferdinand Marcos’ claim that the Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR) is dead, saying the bill will pass next year still within Aquino’s term.

Marcos has said major obstacles such as lack of time and the chronic failure at the House of Representatives to muster quorum with the start of the election season has doomed the BLBAR.

Asked if he remains hopeful that it will still be approved and end up as a legacy of the Aquino administration, Drilon gave this reply, “certainly.”

“We will work for the passage of BBL next year...No it’s not yet dead,” Drilon told reporters even as he acknowledged that efforts will only prove to be futile if the House will not do its share of work in expediting the deliberations of the bill.

In handling the deliberations on the BLBAR, Drilon noted the point made by Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile that the measure should be treated as a local bill, which means that the upper chamber will have to wait for the House version of the bill.

“The other side would assert that this is a bill of national application because the national government would yield numerous powers exercise by the national government. Whatever it is, we will take the conservative approach. We will await the passage of the BBL in the House,” Drilon said.

“But we will process and continue to debate on the BBL in the Senate. So that when the House would be able to transmit it’s version to our chamber, we can immediately pass our own version. In other words, what we will intend to do is, debate on it in the chamber. We will process it to the point of probably passing it on second reading, await the approval by the House and pass it on third reading the day we receive it, the House version or the day after,” he added.

Drilon noted precedents in the past where the two Houses of Congress passed bills similarly situated with the BLBAR and in which the Senate proceeded with its deliberations, only voting on it on third and final reading after the House approved and transmitted its version to the upper chamber.

Records would bear him out on this in the handling of deliberations of Republic Act (RA) 60734 or the ARMM Organic Law which was the original law but which the Senate drafted an own version for it.

“The sponsorship speech, in our records, was on Jan. 9, 1989 and it was approved on second reading on March 17, 1989. But we did not approve it until the Senate received the House version on April 17, 1989. After we received it, we approved the Senate version on third reading,” he said.

The same was done in the case of RA 9054 the Act Strengthening the ARMM Organic Law as the House version was transmitted to the Senate on July 28, 1999 and immediately on the same day it was approved on second reading.

“After that, on January 10, 2001 and also on third Reading on the same day, on Jan. 10, 2001, we passed RA 6766, the Autonomous Region of the Cordillera Organic Law, the House version was transmitted to the Senate on April 17, 1989, it was sponsored on Apr. 10, 1989, it was approved on second reading after we received the House version on May 10, 1989 and approved it on third reading on May 26, 1989,” Drilon said.

“In our words, what we’re saying is, our legislative history would support the proposition that the Senate would wait for the approval of the House version insofar as the organic laws are concerned,” he added.

“So that is what we intend to do after the House. We will continue the debates in the Senate, we will try to approve it up to second reading but we will wait until we receive the version of the House before we approve it on third reading,” he said.

Based on his regular discussions on the status of the bill with Marcos, chairman of the local governments committee and sponsor of BLBAR in the Senate, Drilon said they share the common belief that there’s no serious objection on the bill as far as the Senate is concerned.

It’s a reversal of the situation in the House which has been plagued with a quorum problem on top of the strong resistance of a number of congressmen against what is perceived as unconstitutional provisions in the measure.

“There are a lot of interpellations for clarification, maybe amendments to points where there are doubts on constitutionality but we do not see any effort to block,” he said.

“We have no problem of quorum in the Senate. This week we ratified three treaties, which even required a two-thirds vote and we got the two-thirds vote. The problem on the quorum (is in the House), not the Senate,” Drilon stressed.

As to Enrile’s expressed position that the BLBAR is a bill of local application and therefore should be passed and enacted first by the lower house, the matter has not ben established, Drilon said.

“But we will, as I said, we take the conservative position,” he said.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/milf-warns-no-blbar-no-disarmament-deal