BBL constitutional, our best chance for peace -- solons

MANILA – With the awaited resumption of deliberations on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law in July, solons reiterated their support to the passage of the law, saying that it does not violate any provision in the Constitution and it is the country's best chance for peace in southern Mindanao. Our committee has made sure that the BBL, now called Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is constitutional. We have made amendments and/or deletions to ensure that it is constitutional and consistent with the aspirations of the Bangsamoro, said House ad hoc committee on the BBL chair and Cagayan De Oro 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. Rodriguez, a constitutionalist and former dean of the San Beda College of Law underscored that his committee made the refinements to the draft BBL after various consultations with different stakeholders. House ad hoc committee member and Akbayan partylist Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez also reiterated his firm support to House Bill No. 5811, the lower house's version of the BBL and said that he is confident that it will pass constitutional review. If you listen to the explanations of some members of Congress who voted against the BBL, they were not talking about the substance of the law at all. They were talking about Mamasapano, they were insisting on tying the passage of BBL into some kind of a resolution of the Mamasapano issue like return of firearms, filing of cases by the Department of Justice, or ambiguous standards like the MILF showing sincerity as the government’s peace partner,” he said. Gutierrez, a University of the Philippines professor, also pointed out that many of the provisions allegedly constitutionally questionable in the draft BBL were already found in Republic Act 9054 or the Expanded ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) Law. The BBL discussions have to go back to RA 9054 and the paranoia to its constitutionality makes us revisit the ARMM law. What is written on the BBL is a reiteration of what is in the ARMM with additional provisions that ensure genuine autonomy, Gutierrez stated. On the other hand, Atty. Benedicto Bacani, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance and former dean of Notre Dame University's College of Law, lamented that the deliberations on HB 5811 focused on the draft law's legality and constitutionality instead of on the social justice it will grant the Bangsamoro peoples. ###