By Meanne Corvera
Eagle News Service
House leaders have asked President Rodrigo Duterte to certify as urgent a measure that seeks to provide for a Bangsamoro Basic Law and to abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
In asking Duterte to make the certification on House Bill 6475, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and House Majority leader Rodolfo Farinas said they aimed to pass the measure on third reading “before the sine die adjournment of Congress on June 2, 2018.”
“Thus we are hoping for your usual support as we work for the prompt passage of this law,” they said.
In the Senate, Senate leaders have also asked Duterte to certify as urgent Senate Bill No. 1717 that seeks to provide for the same.
In a May 21 letter to the President, Senate President Tito Sotto and Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said this was because their aim was to pass the measure on third reading also before the sine die adjournment of the Senate on June 2.
“The strategy that I want to do as presiding officer would be to do it page by page on Monday. If we do that we’ll be able to pass, keeping my fingers crossed, we would be able to pass the period of amendments by Monday at the latest Tuesday, and pass it on second reading on Tuesday. And if we receive the certification as urgent from the president, then we do away (with those),” Sotto said at the weekly Kapihan sa Senado forum.
Senate version
According to Sotto, the Senate’s version of the bill was far from the version submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Council.
In fact, he said the House version was “much closer” to the BTC version.
Even then, the newly-installed Senate President said the provisions of the Senate version were legal, which means, if passed, the measure would not be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, much like what the High Court did with the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.
Under the MOA-AD, the planned homeland called the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity would include the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; six municipalities in Lanao del Norte; parts of Palawan; and Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato villages which to become part of the ARMM in 2001.
The proposal, which was supposed to be signed in Aug. 2008, however, was met with strong public opposition from people who believed the agreement could be used to create an independent state.
Some stakeholders took the issue to the High Court, which declared with finality that the agreement was unconstitutional in November of that year.
“Kasi ang nakalagay sa constitution ARMM eh. Eh ito (sa version ng Senate) ang sinasabi ng mga ibang kasama natin, a Moro nation. Baka may mag-kwestyon sa Supreme Court about the constitutionality of
the name, so isa yun sa mga kailangan ayusin namin,” he said.
“We’re also optimistic that if the President sees the Senate version, we might get the support…,” he added.
He said if the versions of the BBL were approved, they could call for a bicameral conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions even if session was adjourned.
