By SAMMY JULIAN, Manila News Bureau Chief
MANILA — The commitment of the Philippine government is for the enactment of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), not Charter change.
This was emphasized by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles as she clarified that the government has not yet endorsed any move to amend the Constitution to accommodate some provisions of the peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
According to Deles, the government is actually committed to pursue the passage of a law creating the Bangsamoro political entity in Congress.
She said any recommendations for Charter change must go through the constitutionally mandated process.
Deles made the clarification after chief government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer raised the possibility of Charter amendments to implement some provisions of the peace deal that could not be included in the draft BBL.
“From the beginning it was very clear that the BBL will pass through regular legislation in Congress and, therefore, must fall within the parameters of the Constitution. We have been trying to stretch these parameters to accommodate the ideas that have been put in the BBL, in addition to what have been put in the signed documents,” Ferrer said.
“But it is very clear we cannot overstep the boundaries of the Constitution. That said, the BTC (Bangsamoro Transition Commission) has been given the mandate to recommend changes in the Constitution all those ideas that could not be accommodated now under this Constitution,” she added.
The government and the MILF peace panel have disagreed over some aspects of the draft BBL. As a result, the planned submission of the draft measure to Congress on July 28 could not be met.
To break the impasse, President Aquino and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim will meet before the State of the Nation Address (SONA) to thresh out the differences on the draft law. No date or venue of the meeting has been disclosed to the public.
Ferrer insisted that the government wants a BBL that is “constitutional” and would withstand political and legal scrutiny.
The MILF earlier reportedly complained about the revisions recommended by the President’s legal team on the draft BBL, saying these have diluted the original proposal drafted by BTC.
The draft was submitted by the commission led by MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal last April, a month after the government and the MILF signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.
It underwent a thorough review by the legal team of the Office of the President which reportedly introduced recommendations to ensure the provisions are constitutional./PN
