BBL draft now in House committee level

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 7): BBL draft now in House committee level

The House of Representatives’ version of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is now submitted and being deliberated in the joint congressional committees.

This after the sub-committee meetings were conducted last week and it was presented as an urgent priority of the Committee on Local Government and Peace, Reconciliation and Unity to come up with the “draft bill,” which will be tackled for public consultation and finalization in the House plenary in due time.

Rep. Celso Lobregat of this city’s first district on Wednesday said the BBL Sub-Committee, in which he was one of the three members, took the lead to harmonize its provisions as they had already discussed it provision by provision and “agreed to disagree” the constitutionality and partiality of it and taking into consideration the unconstitutional provisions, which needed to be discussed thoroughly.

The sub-committee, chaired by Rep. Wilter Wee Palma II (1st District, Zamboanga Sibugay) and represented by at least three members each from the three committees, is now coming up with a working draft bill based on House Bills 6475, 92, 6121 and 6263 authored by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Deputy Speaker Bai Sandra Sinsuat Sema (1st District, Maguindanao), Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2nd District, Pampanga) and Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo (1st District, Lanao del Norte), respectively.

The four bills seek to provide for the BBL and abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). They seek to repeal Republic Act 9054, entitled “An Act to Strengthen and Expand the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao” and RA 6374 entitled “An Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.”

“We were already done with our bloody work of consolidating the four proposed BBL bills, those provisions not agreed upon will be referred to the mother committee, after that we shall have public consultations and there might be changes again before it reaches the plenary,” said Lobregat, member for the majority of the House Committee on Local Government, Peace, Reconciliation and Unity.

He said the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) version of the BBL was dominant, but it didn’t mean that the house committees would approve it, instead they would still had to scrutinize it and determine its constitutionality based on the consolidated version of the BBL.

“We made it very clear, we make the consolidated draft bill and this will be used for discussion in the committee level,” Lobregat said.

He said there was no problem in passing the BBL as long as the unconstitutional provisions would be removed and it would not jeopardize the welfare of other Filipinos who did not wish to be under the jurisdiction of the proposed Bangsamoro region.

“It is the commitment of the House leadership that the BBL will be materialized, we were give a timeline, but again, we wanted a constitutional BBL, we are part of the Philippines, it is not only the Bangsamoro who has to be considered but the entire Filipino nation should also be heard, and it is the reason why the senate and congress are now doing its series of public consultations here in Mindanao region,” Lobregat said.

“Again, I would like to reiterate to the public, that I am for peace, I am not anti-peace but we need a Bangsamoro Basic Law that is just, fair, acceptable, feasible and within the realm of the constitution and existing laws,” Lobregat added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1024436