BY PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA – The Office of the President (OP) is “meticulously” reviewing the draft of the proposed basic law on the Bangsamoro, said Secretary Sonny Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
The law was crafted under the 15-man Bangsamoro Transition Committee.
Coloma yesterday said the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel assists the OP in “determining propriety for inclusion in the legislative agenda of the President.”
The review will ensure that each provision of the proposed law conforms to the Constitution and the signed agreements, he stressed.
Coloma expressed confidence that the proposed law will be passed within this year.
Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. previously said the measure will face legal challenges once it is passed in Congress.
Santiago believed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro was “unconstitutional” as it “violates the principle of constitutional supremacy.”
“Malacañang will brace itself against a legal storm expected to hit the proposed Bangsamoro basic law once it is passed. A question of sovereignty within a sovereignty. They will test in it in the Supreme Court,” said Marcos.
The agreement, according to the Ilongga senator and constitutional law expert, contains provisions similar to those contained in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain which the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional./PN
