SENATE PRESEDENT DRILON VOWS SENATE SUPPORT FOR BANGSAMORO PEACE PROCESS Tuesday, Jul 23 2013 Written by Arland Abubakkar Print Email Senator Franklin Drilon, newly-elected Senate President reiterated during his 12-minute inaugural speech the Senate’s support for the peace process in Mindanao and committed to “amend the Organic Act, to institute the necessary reforms called for,” as soon as the comprehensive peace agreement is signed between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Mindanews reported July 22, 2013. Drilon was elected by 17 of his colleagues from the Liberal Party and allies against Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s six, made the commitment during the opening of the 16th Congress Monday morning, as he mentioned Mindanao twice in his 32-paragraph message. “We support the peace process in Mindanao. Once the peace agreement is signed with the MILF, we will amend the Organic Act, to institute the necessary reforms called for in the Agreement,” Drilon said in his speech. Drilon is referring to the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law that the 15-member Transition Commission is drafting and whose draft, as soon as it is submitted to Congress, will be certified as urgent by the President. The government and MILF had agreed in the April 2012 Decision Points and later carried over into the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) signed on October 15, 2012, that “the status quo is unacceptable” and that they would work for the creation of a new autonomous political entity that would replace the now 23-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The Revenue and Wealth-Sharing annex was signed by the GPH-MILF Peace Panels on the midnight of July 14 while the annex on Arrangement and Modalities was signed in February. Under the FAB, the parties agreed that upon the promulgation and ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, the ARMM is deemed abolished and all devolved authorities will be vested in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority. The ARMM was created by RA 6734, the Organic Act of Muslim Mindanao passed in 1989. This was amended by RA 9054, which lapsed into law in 2001, to incorporate provisions of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Drilon said the Senate “must address the major impediments to economic development, such as the high cost of energy.” He cited the “constant power interruptions, especially in Mindanao” and said these affect the chances of attracting much-needed investments. “We all know that economic development is a potent antidote to the poverty-induced bloody conflicts in the South,” he said He cited at least 10 priority measures for their legislative agenda, the tenth on the Bangsamoro peace process. “We will recommend to our colleagues in the Senate as our legislative agenda the following important measures meant to create an environment that will further strengthen our economic fundamentals and boost employment. These include the following: The Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives; The Rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime; Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law; The Tax Incentives Monitoring and Transparency Act; and The Removal of Investment Restrictions in Specific Laws cited in the Foreign Investment Negative List,” Drilon said. The other priority measures he cited are amendments to the Charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; enacting the National Land Use Act; amending the Ombudsman Act and amending the Sandiganbayan Law “to ensure the speedy resolution of 2,600 cases currently pending with the anti-graft court,” and committed to support the peace process, Mindanews reported further. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte in his inaugural speech described the 16th Congress as a “visionary Congress that will anticipate our needs and steer our economy to a path of sustained, but especially, equitable and inclusive growth” but was silent on the peace process throughout his 23-paragraph speech. Meanwhile, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III has called on Congress to pass before the end of 2014 the law creating the Bangsamoro, the new autonomous political entity that would replace the 23-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), as he assured in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday that whatever agreement the government will sign with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will be implemented, Mindanews said in a separate report. MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal lauded the President’s call. “It’s a welcome development. It goes to show he is serious. We commend him!” he told MindaNews in a text message.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 05:10:35 +0000
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