House committee to rename BBL into Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region

MANILA -- Members of the House AdHoc Committee on the Bangsamoro may be coming up with a separate and new version of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), officials to reporters at the House.Despite lengthy hearings conducted by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the panel chairman admitted on Thursday that there is still no final version of the measure, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported today.Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said the committee is still consolidating the final draft that would be distributed to its members Monday morning next week before the scheduled voting in the afternoon until Wednesday.Rodriguez said the draft report that his panel will consolidate before the scheduled voting on Monday includes the proposals of Davao del Norte Rep. Anthony Del Rosario and former Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., a member of the Citizens' Peace Council.The committee members have conducted at least 48 hearings in different places in Mindanao. Still, we do not have the final version. We might arrive on it by Monday,” said Rodriguez in a chance interview.He expressed confidence that his fellow lawmakers will vote for the passage of the BBL if they would remove the eight controversial provisions included in his draft report. The removal of eight provisions that are deemed unconstitutional will help the passage of the BBL,” Rodriguez pointed out.He told reporters in a press conference that amendments include wordings to guarantee that the new Bangsamoro entity would not be a sub-state. Likewise, we change the title of the Bangsamoro Basic Bill to Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. The word territory was removed as it is perceived a sub-state. This will be called Bangsamoro Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region,” Rodriguez stressed.The eight controversial provisions deemed to be unconstitutional are the followingandThe creation of a separate Bangsamoro electoral body as the election body in the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous entity the creation of a civil service office similar to the functions of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) the establishment of a Bangsamoro Commission on Audit (COA) the provision creating a disciplinary authority over officials in the region which is similar to the Office of the Ombudsman the creation of a human rights body which will have jurisdiction over all human rights violations within the region the provision empowering the Bangasamoro government with primary responsibility over public order and safety in the covered territory by giving it control over the police another one requiring a coordination protocol between the AFP and the Bangsamoro government and the opt-in” provision which allows neighboring territories to propose their inclusion in the Bangsamoro at any time” through a petition of at least 10 percent of the residents and approval by a majority of qualified voters in the city or province in a separate plebiscite.Rodriguez said thesecond draft of the
Bangsamoro bill is containing the last minute amendments proposed by Davao City Rep. Anthony
del Rosario and 11 other lawmakers ahead of the scheduled May 18 voting.He said he meet Thursday with House Speaker Jose Belmonte and committee vice chairpersons.Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Rodriguez saidand The request of the
vice chairmen was that for the eight provisions the chair wants to be deleted,
instead of only having a proposal to remove them contained in the working
draft to modify the language, which is
really what was proposed by Congressman Del Rosario. So there would now be two
options to be considered in the new edition of the Chairman’s working draft,”
Rodriguez told reporters.Rodriguez said copies ofthe Chairman's working draft of the Bangsamoro bill that contained 125 changes to the original draft submitted to Malacanang last year have been distributed to 98 AdHoc Committee members - 75 regular and 23 ex-officio members. Included in Del Rosario's proposed amendments was that thepetition for
inclusion can only be held every five years and no petition can be entertained
within five years of the BBL’s enactment.

He told reporters that his proposal was backed by atleast 12 lawmakers who are all
administration allies.

He identified them asDeputy
Speaker and Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad, Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong,
Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao, Iloilo Rep. Arthur Defensor, Bukidnon Rep.
Malou Acosta-Alba, Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal, Anak Mindanao
party-list Rep. Sitti Turabin-Hataman, Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema,
Basilan Rep. Jim Hataman-Salliman and North Cotabato Rep.Jesus Sacdalan.