BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

MANILA – Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday he is open to the idea of holding special sessions to assure that the plenary debates on his substitute bill for Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be finished before the filing of certificate of candidacy (COC) next month.Marcos, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, said it is up to the discretion of Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to call special sessions.Under the Constitution, Article VI, Section 15, the President may call a special session any time.

MANILA -- The Bangsamoro peace process will serve as the lynchpin of the country’s 12th National Peace Consciousness Month, with the two-pronged objective of encouraging Congress to finish the work on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) while at the same time continuing to raise awareness and understanding on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.Government chief peace negotiator Prof.

MANILA -- Who will have jurisdiction over inland waters in the Bangsamoro autonomous region?If the substitute bill in the Senate overrides the House version, the autonomous government in the Bangsamoro will lose supervision and control over fisheries and other resources found in all inland bodies of water in the region like lakes and rivers. This deletion in the Senate Bill 2894 is troubling,” said government chief negotiator Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer.

MANILA – Senator Pia Cayetano on Monday calls for a clear-cut guidelines on how the Bangsamoro government would appropriate the Php34-billion block grant from the national government.Cayetano made the call during the start of the Senate plenary debates on Senate Bill No.

MANILA – The government peace panel that negotiated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) today lauded both the Ad Hoc House Committee chaired by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and the Senate Committee on Local Government chaired by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for retaining the proposed parliamentary form of government for the Bangsamoro region in its version of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

KIDAPAWAN CITY -The composition of the parliament that would be established in a Bangsamoro political entity as introduced by Senator Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., in his version of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), will ‘impair’ the ‘democratization’ of the representation in the assembly, according to government chief negotiator talking peace wit the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

MANILA (PNA) -- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) vowed to look for all avenues to restore the 28 items that the House Ad Hoc committee on Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) has struck down, MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said on Tuesday.Iqbal, together with government chief negotiators Miriam Coronel Ferrer and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, met with the panel chairman and Cagayan de Oro City Rep.

MANILA (PNA) -- UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz will spearhead reviewing Senate local government committee chairperson Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s proposed substitute for the Malacanang-backed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) bill.She assured undertaking such action to see if such substitute upholds rights of indigenous peoples (IPs) in the target Bangsamoro area.

MANILA (PNA) – Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. on Monday filed his committee report on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), drawing signatures from majority members of the committees on local government and peace and unification.Marcos refused to name the signatories but claimed at least 17 senators have already affixed their signatures to his report on the Malacanang-backed bill.Registered as Senate Bill No.

SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao -- Malaysia will continue to invite Malaysian traders to invest in Mindanao even as it expressed continued support to the Mindanao peace process, a ranking Malaysian official in the Philippines told officials of a Moro group in Southern Philippines. Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines His Excellency Dato Mohammad Zamri Mohammad Kassim made the renewal ofcommitment during his visit to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) stronghold in Barangay Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao over the weekend.