House body’s Bangsa is less than Armm, says former deputy speaker

DAVAO City––The House of Representatives was set to meet for a plenary yesterday until Congress adjourns sine die on June 11, to deliberate and vote on the Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law’s substitute bill that, if carried by the majority, will create a new autonomous political entity that is “less than the Armm” that it seeks to replace.
This, as former Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Gerry Salapuddin, warned Congress against passing a “recipe for disaster.”
“If Congress will give another failed experiment, do not expect the Bangsamoro to produce miracles. The same failed experiment will also be the result of the kind of law that Congress will enact for the Bangamoro,” Salapuddin said at the Experts’ Forum of the Cotabato City-based Institute of Autonomy and Governance (IAG) held at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati.
The Cotabato City-based Bangsamoro Study Group (BSG) presented a list of provisions in the House Committee’s substitute bill––the “Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region”––that allegedly violate the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on March 27, 2014, as well as provisions that took out powers already granted the Armm under RA 9054.
“The proposed amendments change the framework of the agreement of the parties on changing the status quo and of redefining the relation between the Central Government and the Bangsamoro to a point that the Bangsamoro has been reduced into the category of an LGU (local government unit),” lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, a co-convenor of the Cotabato City-based BSG said.
“In our analysis, the block grant is not a substitute for economic provisions. You’ve een how it’s framed. All the good economic provisions were removed. What was left to us is the block grant, half of which is for the Department of Education,” Mastura said.
“Ibig sabihin, kawawang-kawawa ang investors namin, private sector namin,” he said, adding that if the Committee-approved BBL is passed by the plenary, they’d be better off under RA 9054, the law governing the present Armm.
Sinarimbo, who served as Armm Executive Secretary from December 2009 to December 2011, made a presentation on the political aspects of the BBL while Mastura, head of the Armm’s Regional Board of Investments, focused on the economic provisions.
Sinarimbo listed at least 45 problematic provisions in the Committee draft while Mastura listed at least 18, two of these from the Committee on Ways and Means where the Ad Hoc Committee-approved bill was forwarded and where major amendments to the taxation provisions were made.
Mastura said provisions in the original BBL draft were lifted verbatim from the CAB so a lot of provisions changed by the Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law and the Committee on Ways and Means “also directly violated the CAB provisions.”
“Changes in the BBL may violate not just the CAB but the peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF),” he said.
Efforts are being undertaken, with the assistance of the 57-member nation – Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to harmonize the tracks of the peace agreements they signed separately with the Philippine government. Last week, the OIC met in Kuwait at the sidelines of the 42nd Council of Foreign Ministers conference, with the Bangsamoro Coordination Forum (BCF) composed of leaders from the MILF and the MNLF factions.
Salapuddin, principal author of RA 9054, said at the Expert’s Forum that it would be “disastrous” to pass a law that is not acceptable to both the MILF and the MNLF.
“That is why I told the Senate… during the hearing last week that if you do the same thing over and over again, do not expect another result. Therefore if Congress will give another failed experiment, do not expect the Bangsamoro to produce miracles. The same failed experiment will also be the result of the kind of law that Congress will enact for the Bangamoro,” Salapuddin said.
If the BBL is “not successfully passed, as much as possible as a true expression and reflection of whatever is in the CAB… I don’t think the Moro mujahideen will accept their fate to be cheated twice––from the MNLF to the MILF. If in case this one will still fail, then it’s not only going to be a recipe for disaster but it might be the glue that will reunite all the different factions… to continue the struggle not anymore for autonomy but even if I don’t have to tell you this, but I know you will be guessing the same as I do, but for independence,” he said. –carolyn arguillas of mindanews