MANILA, Philippines, August 17 (Eagle News) — While the congress deleted some provisions of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the senate, for its part, has replaced the entire version of the bill with its own, through the efforts of Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Chairman of the local government committee tackling the proposed measure.
Marcos said he was prepared to defend his substitute bill and urged the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to exercise flexibility.
The senator said that the substitute bill for the BBL is “not just inclusive but beneficial and fair to all.”
Marcos pointed out that many of the provisions of the bill would give equal treatment of the Bangsamoro government and other local government units (LGUs).
The senate begins today floor debates on the substitute bill for the palace’s proposed BBL that Marcos’ committee had submitted to the senate floor.
In a radio interview, Marcos expressed hope that the measure would be approved before the October deadline for candidates to file their certificates of candidacy for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) regional legislative assembly whose election would be held simultaneously with the may 2016 national and local elections.
The Bangsamoro charter to be crafted by the senate and the House of Representatives would abolish the ARMM and set up a sub-state envisioned under a peace agreement hammered out last year between the Aquino administration and the MILF.
Meanwhile, Marcos, like Representative Rodriguez, maintained that they could not retain proposed provisions in the original draft saying that they were unconstitutional.
