REP. Rufus Rodriguez of the city’s 2nd District yesterday said he was optimistic that the Lower House would be able to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law by the middle of September.
Rodriguez said this even as Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said he was confident the Senate and the Lower House would approved the proposed law before the end of the third and last regular session of the 16th Congress.
Rodriguez, chairman of the House ad hoc committee that endorsed a revised Bangsamoro bill, said, “We can still catch up before the budget issue of BBL goes to plenary and I am optimistic we can beat the timeline.”
He said that by August, all budget issues would be tackled in the committee level and before it reaches the plenary, they can polish the needed fund.
Rodriguez said they could not approve the original proposed measure because there were some provisions that violated or contradicted the Constitution.
“We removed all unconstitutional provisions so it is easy for us now to convince the 75-man members of the ad hoc committee to pass it on second and third reading,” he pointed out.
Rodriguez said the bill can be considered now as creating an enhanced Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao after they decided to make constitutional offices as regional in nature and the police force with the armed forces does not need to seek clearances but directly under the supervision of the headquarters.
“The beauty of the bill is it has additional key positions which are not present in the present setup of the Armm,” he explained.
In the original bill, they wanted to have separate constitutional offices like the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Commission on Elections, Human Rights, Securities and Exchange Commission and the likes.
They are also asking for separate Police and Armed Forces which are not directly under the supervision of the National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Policemen and soldiers needing to coordinate first with the Bangsamoro before they can operate within the region is no longer allowed in the proposed measure, Rodriguez said.
Belmonte, for his part, said they still have enough time to pass the BBL, noting that they have stripped it of all unconstitutional provisions.
“We are committed to our Muslim brothers to pass the agreement. I think it can pass,” Belmonte said. (pna)
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