President Aquino to continue to lobby for BBL passage under his watch

MANILA (PNA) – President Benigno Aquino III said on Tuesday he would continue to lobby with members of Congress for the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) under his watch.”We will continue to lobby with members of Congress to pass the law during our watch and pass it at the earliest possible time so that the new mode of governance will have the maximum time to show the effectivity or the efficacy of this new mode of governance,” the President said in an interview with Inquirer multi-media.Despite some difficulties hampering the early passage of the BBL, President Aquino said both Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte have expressed confidence that the measure will be passed.”So, on the Executive’s portion, we would want to continue the engagement of our dialogue partners, specifically the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and programs, through programs like Sajahatra, we want them to experience and the population in general in this region the benefits or the so-called peace dividends arising from this agreement,” he told the Inquirer people.The President, however, is hoping that even in the absence of the Bangsamoro law, Congress will support the initiatives that will shower these people with the peace dividends and get them further engaged in the process.”President Aquino believes that war will not break out in Mindanao despite the delay in the passage of the Bangsamoro bill.”I don’t submit to the premise that war will break out. I don’t think there is any interest from the major players to re-engage in a bloody conflict,” the President said.”Having said that, there will be the spoilers who will want to exploit the current difficulties to show that their avowed aims of gaining what they want through violent means is the only way to go about it,” he added.The President urged peace advocates to really even redouble our efforts to thwart these groups who would want us to branch again into really a pointless conflict.””So, who should be blamed? I think I’ll leave that up to the Filipino people who will have an opportunity in next year’s elections to gauge the merit, or lack of it, of the people who will propose themselves to lead various offices,” he added.Earlier, Belmonte admitted that lack of quorum has been obstructing their efforts to finish the plenary debates on the BBL.In the Senate, Senators Pia Cayetano, Teofisto Guingona III and Loren Legarda have already finished interpellating the bill sponsor, Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.Marcos, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, submitted a substitute bill which he called Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR).