DAVAO City — With only a few days left until Congress goes on recess on Dec. 16, no Bangsamoro law will be passed by yearend as originally envisioned by the Duterte administration’s Bangsamoro Peace and Development Roadmap approved in July 2016.
The new target for passing the law is March 2018, said Lanao del Sur Rep. Mauyag Papandayan Jr., chair of the House committee on Muslim affairs.
Papandayan said committee hearings will start first week of December.
Congress goes on recess from Dec. 16 to Jan. 14.
He said public hearings would be done when Congress resumes in January followed by committee deliberations then plenary session and “hopefully by March tapos na.”
Congress resumes session on Jan. 15 and will have 39 Monday to Wednesday session days until it adjourns sine die on June 2: 30 session days from January 15 to March 23; break from Mach 24 to May 13 and nine session days from May 14 to June 1.
Three committees — Muslim Affairs under Papandayan; Peace, Reconciliation and Unity under Tawi-tawi Rep. Ruby Sahali and Local Government under South Cotabato Rep. Pedro Acharon — are jointly handling four bills on the proposed Bangsamoro law; House Bill 092 filed on June 30, 2016 by Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema, Deputy Speaker for Mindanao; HB 6121 filed by Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Aug. 3, 2017; HB 6263 filed by Lanao del Norte Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo on Aug. 24 and and HB 6475 or the BBL version submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez Jr. and 97 other representatives reportedly on Sept. 27. The first three bills are posted on the House website, the bills signed by the authors and stamped received. HB 6475 has not been posted on the website.
All bills related to the proposed Bangsamoro law are to be consolidated first.
At the Senate, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III filed SB 1608 or the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region Basic Law in Nov. 6.
Pimentel said the Senate committee on local government headed by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara “has vowed to hear BBL immediately after tax reform…” (carolyn o. arguillas of mindanews)
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