Conclusion
THE inclusion of the elected officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) in the transition to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) is not without precedent.
In 2015, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, chaired by the then Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, amended the Bangsamoro Transition Commission-drafted provision on membership in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to include the Armm’s 24 assemblymen, precisely to allow them to complete their term until 30 June 2016. No BBL was passed under the Aquino administration.
Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema, deputy speaker for Mindanao, said the new formula they adopted in July 12 is 105 or 80 + 25 for the BTA, with the 25 representing the Armm’s elected officials but serving only until 30 June 2019.
She said the incumbent Armm officials can enrich the process and share their experiences in the BTA.
Meanwhile, the BTC-drafted Section 5 was retained but amended. Sema explained that the caretakers would be 45, represented by 25 of the Armm’s elected officials and the 20 BTC members (the 21st resigned on the first week of the Marawi Siege), “while the President has not appointed the BTA members.”
When the BTA is constituted, it would be 80 members plus 25 Armm officials until June 30, 2019 only, Sema said in July 12.
She said once the BTA is constituted, the BTC would be out of the picture.
The BTC-drafted Section 5 now reads, under the bicam’s final version, that “to foreclose any political interregnum in the governance of the region,” the 25 incumbent elected officials of the Armm and the BTC “shall act as caretakers of the administration of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region until the Bangsamoro Transition Authority is constituted.”
The BTC’s mandate under Executive Order 8 issued Nov. 7, 2016 by President Duterte which amended an earlier EO issued by then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, says the BTC will cease to operate “upon the ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in a plebiscite called for such purpose.”
The Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Olbarmm) or what is being referred to as the Bangsamoro Organic Law, provides that the plebiscite would be held “not earlier than 90 days or later than 150 days” after the effectivity of the law.
Senate Majority Leader and bicam co-chair Juan Miguel Zubiri had earlier estimated the plebiscite to be held in November or December.
Deputy presidential adviser on the peace process Nabil Tan, chair of the government’s peace implementing panel in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said in July 11 that in their visit to the Commission on Elections a day earlier, the Comelec informed them it needed five months to prepare for the plebiscite.
The five-month period from August 2018 is January 2019.
The President has until March 28, 2019 to appoint members of the BTA before the ban on appointment or hiring of new employees takes effect. The ban is from March 29 to May 12.
The mid-term elections will be on May 13, 2019. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / Mindanews)
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