BBL hurdles Committee level
President Benigno S. Aquino III’s all-or-nothing solution to the decades-old peace problem in Mindanao has been passed at the Committee level in House of Representatives (HOR).
On Wednesday, the House Ad Hoc Committee overwhelmingly voted for the approval of the House Bill (HB) 4994 or the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), now called the proposed Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Region following the 15-minute long voting that afternoon.
Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Rufus Rodriguez said that 50 members favored the adoption of the BBL, which bats for the creation of a new geopolitical entity in the Muslim South called the Bangsamoro. Under the law, the Bangsamoro entity will supersede the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Some 17 lawmakers composed mostly of the Minority bloc members and non-Muslim Mindanao solons voted against the measure’s passage. One panel member abstained.
Rodriguez, Cagayan de Oro’s 2nd district representative, described the passage of the BBL before the special panel as “historic”.
“[This is] affirmative action to fully correct the centuries of neglect and injustices inflicted on our Muslim sector,” he said.
The Ad Hoc panel chair said afterward that the approved BBL–the 240 provisions of which underwent an arduous, 20-hour line-by-line voting the past two days–will be referred to the Committees on Appropriations and Ways and Means to resolve its provisions on funding and taxation.
The BBL’s passage came almost nine months after the first draft of the measure was submitted by Aquino to Congress in September 2014. This version was said to be replete with constitutional infirmities.
Manila Bulletin
