Bangsamoro Law will not be watered down, solons assure public MANILA – Two solons from Mindanao assured the public that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which is currently under deliberation in both chambers of Congress, will not be watered down, as the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro’s public hearings and consultations on the BBL drew to a close this week. “We will never allow a watered-down Bangsamoro Basic Law to pass Congress,” Deputy Speaker and Lanao 2nd district representative Pangalian Balindong said. “While the House might introduce some changes to improve the draft, we are confident that the final version of the bill will be faithful to the substance and spirit of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, and we will see to it that the BBL does exactly that,” Balindong said. The BBL is the legal iteration of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which was signed between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in March of last year. The CAB is the final political settlement which effectively ended the decades-long conflict in Mindanao. “Most of these changes will come from the extensive consultations the Ad Hoc Committee conducted,” Balindong explained. “While we are steadfast in our resolve not to allow a watered-down BBL to pass Congress, we are also attentive to the views and opinions of the public, especially those within the proposed territory of the Bangsamoro. That way we can even improve the inclusiveness of this law.” “As the surviving drafters of the 1987 Constitution said in their statement expressing their unanimous support for the Bangsamoro Basic Law, we now have another chance at national incandescence, just as we did during the People Power Revolution,” Balindong added. “And we in the House of Representatives are more than up to the challenge.” Maguindanao 2nd district representative Sajid Mangudadatu also allayed fears that the BBL that Congress will pass will be diluted from the draft submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission to the President and the Congress. “There might be small changes,” Mangudadatu said. “But all these changes will be made with the welfare of the Bangsamoro people in mind, and certainly still in view of what we have agreed to in the CAB. For the sake of the Bangsamoro, we will accept nothing less.” “We want the public, especially our Bangsamoro brethren, to rest assured that we, along with the many friends of peace in the House of Representatives, will not agree to a diluted BBL,” Mangudadatu said. “We have already achieved so much in this peace process,” Mangudadatu said. “And it will be such a waste if we in Congress do not pass a law that will truly resolve the conflict in Mindanao, that will truly be attentive to the needs of the Bangsamoro, that will help us finally achieve a just and lasting peace in Mindanao.” “This is what the BBL seeks to do, and the future of our Bangsamoro brethren depends on this,” Mangudadatu added. “We cannot and will not fail them.”
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:58:58 +0000
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