CAGAYAN de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez admitted on Tuesday night that the issue on quorum was affecting their June 11 target to approve House Bill 5811, the substitute bill to the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
This, as the President Aquino has yet to certify the bill as urgent.
“Wala pa,” said Rodriguez, chair of the House Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, and principal sponsor of substitute House Bill 5811 or the Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
“Our problem is, the quorum is always under question,” Rodriguez said. But he remains confident they would pass the law on or before June 11, the last session day before Congress adjourns sine die. The next session is on July 27, with the President delivering his last State of the Nation Address (Sona).
The quorum is 146 out of 290 members of the House. Under the Rules of the House, “the House shall not transact business without a quorum.”
“It was fine, we’ve already started until the question on quorum was again raised,” he said.
Rodriguez said 33 representatives had signed up to interpellate but Tuesday’s session had only two – Minority Leader, Rep. Ronaldo Zamora of San Juan City and Rep. Rolando Abaya, first district of Camarines Sur, interpellating until Buhay party-list Rep. and former Manila mayor Lito Atienza rose to question the quorum at 7:17 pm. But before he could put forward his motion, the presiding chair suspended the session.
The session resumed at 7:44 pm with the reading of several bills on third reading and the alleged approval by “nominal voting” with only less than 70 members present but each time the vote count was handed over to then presiding chair, Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad, she would announce “with 197 voting in the affirmative and none in the negative,” the measure is approved.
The session on BBL resumed at 8:25 pm with Andaya finishing his interpellation at 8:40 pm. Atienza rose to speak but the presiding chair suspended the session, returned to the session hall at 8:58 p.m. with Atienza waiting by the rostrum. But before Atienza could speak, Abad quickly announced the suspension of the session until 4 p.m. Wednesday.
On Monday, 193 were reported “present” during the roll call that started at 4:53 p.m. On Tuesday, 197 were reported “present” during the roll call that started at 4:55 p.m.
On those two days, the quorum bell had to be sounded to muster a quorum in the session hall. And on both days, the sessions ended because Atienza on Monday rose to question the quorum with less than 50 members present and threatened to question it again on Tuesday. Monday’s session ended at 7:22 p.m. while Tuesday’s session ended at 8:58 pm
At the Senate, Senate President Franklin Drilon repeatedly said since Saturday that their new timetable is now October.
Asked if they would go for the same timetable, Rodriguez said, “No.”
“This should be finished. This should already be finished, by June 11. Kasi we’re ready naman to defend it.”
Under the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro which the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on Oct. 15, 2012, the draft BBL submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition commission “shall be certified as an urgent bill by the President.”
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo of the Bangsamoro Study Group said President Aquino may not certify the bill as urgent because “the Ad Hoc- approved basic law is diluted and not acceptable to the MILF.”
He said the President would be facing a dilemma if he certifies urgent the substitute bill.
“He will just be expediting the passage of a Bangsamoro Basic Law that is diluted,” said Sinarimbo, who once served as executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
He said the FAB envisioned a certificate of urgency for the draft BBL that was submitted to Congress in September last year.
He added that if the President certifies as urgent the Ad Hoc Committee’s substitute bill, “you will not have the chance to reintroduce deleted provisions or reframe some of the provisions not acceptable to the party that negotiated the peace agreement with government.”–carolyn arguillas of mindanews
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