House to start voting on BBL at committee level

COTABATO CITY -- The 75-member House AdHoc Committee will start voting today the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law with peace advocates hoping it will give more autonomy in Muslim Mindanao.Cagayan Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, AdHoc Committee chair, said voting is expected to start at 9:30 a.m. today until 4 p.m. at the South Wing of the House of Representatives in Quezon City.The Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation, through its Radio Stations DXMS-AM, DXOL-FM, DXND-AM, DXDM-OM, DXOAM-AM and DXOM-FM, will provide updates, reports and interviews on the progress of the voting.Veteran broadcast journalist Malu Cadelina Manar is in Quezon City to cover the event for NDBC, Mindanao Crossand NDBCNews(ndbcnews.com.ph).Allies of President Aquino in the Househave been pushing for a new draft law that will not run counter to the Constitution.The President, according to a report by the Philippine News Agency (PNA), that he meet over the weekend with House leaders to get updates on the progress of the draft BBL's journey in the House.The BBL will be the basis forestablishing a new political government and will replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Once approved at the committee level in a three-day marathon voting, Rodriguez said the bill will be deliberated during a plenary on May 25.Bayan Partylist Neri Colmenares was quoted as saying that two drafts have been prepared by the administration allies. These are the Chairman's working draft and the other was the House Bill 4994. One of the draft has renamed BBL as Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.