House Ad Hoc committee on BBL restores six of eight provisions decided earlier to be deleted

QUEZON CITY -- The chairman of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc committee on Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) said on Monday they decided to retain six of the eight provisions earlier agreed upon to be deleted.Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, the panel head, said that instead of removing the six other alleged unconstitutional provisions, the committee decided to just reword” them, especially those already included in the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). We used modifying language in this new draft, which was created after a consultation with vice chairs last week,” Rodriguez said.Rodriguez said that by rephrasing the critical provisions of the measure, if will remove the sub-state nature” of the future Bangsamoro region.The provisions removed from the previous draft version include the coordination between the national government and regional government regarding the military’s movements in the future Bangsamoro region, and the primary power of the Bangsamoro government to discipline its own officials.The revised version also retained the operational control and supervision of the future Bangsamoro Chief Minister over the Bangsamoro police that was previously omitted by the panel.Rodriguez explained that a similar provision was already included in the current ARMM charter.He said that the so-called opt-in” provision stated in Article III, Section 3 was revised to limit the petition for inclusion to being made on the fifth and 10th year following the BBL’s passage.Earlier, peace advocates from the Friends of Peace Coalition who are in favor of the BBL appealed to the lawmakers not to water down the measure and follow what has been agreed upon by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamaro (CAB) and its five annexes.The group said that if certain provisions in the organic law creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that's in (draft) BBL are removed, (the future) Bangsamoro region would be less autonomous” than the existing one.Meanwhile, Rodriguez dismissed the allegations that the revised BBL was made upon orders from Malacañang.He admitted that he and eight vice chairmen of the panel met President Benigno Aquino III during the weekend as he claimed that it was merely an exchange of ideas.” It was a dialogue for us to tell the President that these are our proposed amendments… there has to be changes to the bill to get the support of the members of the ad hoc committee,” said Rodriguez.During the start of the House panel’s deliberations, majority of committee members have decided to put the draft BBL into vote via a single scheme instead of doing it per section.The House panel is expected to finish the deliberations by Wednesday. (PNA)SCS/SFM