House cant' pass Bangsamoro bill for now
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 14:41 PM Tue Jun 9, 2015
1,171
By:
Edwin Fernandez in Quezon City
House majority floor leader Neptali Gonzales
QUEZON CITY - HOUSE
LEADERS ON Monday admitted it cannot pass House Bill 5811 or the draft Basic
Law for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
In a brief
news conference Monday during the lull in the regular session, House majority
flood leader Neptali Gonzales said House Speaker Jose Belmonte and other house
leaders met with majority and minority group leaders and agreed to pass the
Bangsamoro law when Congress resumes next month.
We agreed,
the majority and the minority, that by Wednesday, we will finish the period of
interpellation and then when we come back, after the SONA, we will be in the period
of amendment,” Gonzales told a news conference.
I find
nothing wrong in the event that we approve this by October and the conduct of
plebiscite three months after that because you don't need to conduct the
election right away, said Gonzales in Filipino.
Earlier, the
House has June 10 as its self-imposed deadline to pass the BBL so it can be
included in the report of President Aquino during his state of the nation
address on June 30.
The House
leaders are also planning to remove the opt-in provision of the bill authored
by Cagayan Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Gonzales said he
and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte have jointly agreed to remove the
contentious provision in the draft BBL to address the concerns of some
lawmakers on its possible negative effects.
With the
deletion of opt-in and if we are going to settle the language on the energy
provision involving Lake Lanao, there will be substantial number of members who
will support the draft Bangsamoro Law, said Gonzales.
The opt-in
provision under Article III Section 3 of the BBL approved by the House ad hoc
committee will allow 10 percent of registered voters in the barangay units of
contiguous municipalities or cities outside the original Bangsamoro area to
demand a plebiscite to propose joining the future autonomous region.
But Rep. Rodriguez
said that he will discuss the Gonzales and Belmonte's proposal with his eight
vice chair before deciding on the matter since some Muslim members of the panel
may oppose the removal of the opt-in provision.
Gonzales had
said the BBL will get the needed numbers during the voting in the plenary if the
opt-in provision of the measure will be removed. ###