DAVAO CITY—A Mindanao lawmaker whose committee earlier warned of a rejected Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) proposal if the Moro guerrillas would not surrender the firearms of the police commandos killed in January in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, expressed confidence of the passage of the House version of the law that would provide the legal basis for a new autonomous region in Mindanao. Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez of the Second District of Cagayan De Oro, chairman of the House Committee on the BBL, said his committee has ensured that the BBL, now called Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region “is constitutional.”
“We have made amendments and/or deletions to ensure that it is constitutional and consistent with the aspirations of the Bangsamoro,” he said in a statement posted by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp).
The Opapp said Rodriguez “is a constitutionalist” and former dean of the San Sebastian College of Law.
The Opapp added that Rodriguez has stated that his committee “made the refinements to the draft BBL after various consultations with different stakeholders.”Rodriguez said the refinements and assurance of the rectified provisions would persuade the plenary in Congress to approve it when Congress resumes deliberations on the draft BBL this month. He said the committee version of the BBL “is the country’s best chance for peace in southern Mindanao.” The Opapp said that another House committee member, Party-list Rep. Ibarra M. Gutierrez of Akbayan, has expressed confidence in the passage of the House Bill 5811, the lower house’s version of the BBL.
“If you listen to the explanations of some members of Congress who voted against the BBL, they were not talking about the substance of the law at all. They were talking about Mamasapano, they were insisting on tying the passage of BBL into some kind of a resolution of the Mamasapano issue, like return of firearms, filing of cases by the Department of Justice, or ambiguous standards like the MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] showing sincerity as the government’s peace partner,” he said.
Gutierrez, a University of the Philippines professor, also pointed out that many of the provisions allegedly constitutionally questionable in the draft BBL were already found in Republic Act (RA) 9054, or the Expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao law.
“The BBL discussions have to go back to RA 9054 and the paranoia to its constitutionality makes us revisit the ARMM law. What is written on the BBL is a reiteration of what is in the ARMM with additional provisions that ensure genuine autonomy,” Gutierrez said.