A DRAFT bill that would allow the creation of a Bangsamoro political entity has been completed by the MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission and is now up for President Rodrigo Duterte’s consideration, a senior official said Friday.
Government implementing panel chairwoman Irene Santiago said the commission hoped to submit the draft to the Office of the President in the middle of June so Duterte could review it and endorse it to Congress in time for his second State of the Nation Address on July 24.
“[We] are hoping that the President will mention that in the Sona and say, ‘This is a priority bill for me,’” Santiago told reporters in Davao City.
“I have no doubt he will [certify the bill as urgent].”
Santiago made her statement even as Undersecretary Nabel Tan of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace process said Duterte was inclined to certify as priority the proposed autonomy law for the Cordillera and the enabling law for the Bangsamoro.
The BBL, the product of the years-long peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as part of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, was signed by the Philippine government and the MILF in March 2014.
Santiago said the new draft BBL was based on the original BBL but there were some changes to it that made it “better.”
“The Bangsamoro Transition Commission used the BBL as the basic document for the draft that they made… I think this is even a better version of the BBL. There are some provisions, for example, on transition that are very, very practical,” she said.
“I found that everybody was very pleased with the draft that they made.”
The Duterte administration is also pursuing parallel talks with the Nur Misuari faction of the MNLF.
Santiago said that, while the Misuari faction of the MNLF was holding separate talks with the government, the MILF-backed BBL could address the unresolved issues in the implementation of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement. With Dexter A. See
