BTC LAUNCHING. President Rodrigo Duterte, along with Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and GPH implementing panel chair Irene Santiago join the members of the expanded Bangsamoro Transition Commission for photo opportunity during the launching of the new BTC in Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao City last February 24, 2017. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines— The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is hoping that the July 10 schedule for the “tentative” submission of the new Bangsamoro Basic Law will be made final.
“Again, the submission was postponed to July 10 – and this is still tentative. The reason given for this is the uncertainty of the presence of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Senate President Koko Pimentel, the two most important personalities as far as legislation, and for this matter, the passage of BBL in Congress, are concerned,” the MNLF explained in its editorial piece titled “Submission of BBL Postponed Again” published at luwaran.com on Saturday, June 24.
“So be it! The government has the final say on this. The BTC has to wait; after all, it is mainly part of the official family,” it added.
The MILF added: “But we still believe things can still be improved, especially in setting up of schedules. The best system is when it can still fly under turbulent times. We hope July 10 will be the final rendezvous for submission of the BBL.”
The commissioners were not able to submit the proposed BBL on June 1 and later they proposed both June 14 and 15 as alternative dates.
According to MILF, there was “no concurrence on either of the two dates by the Office of the President (OP),” who has the final say on the schedule.
“Then later the dates June 16, 22 and 24 were also mentioned, and then finally 28. The last one officially came from the OP,” it added.
During his visit to the wounded troopers in Cagayan de Oro City on June 20, President Rodrigo Duterte told reporters that the new BBL is ready for submission.
“The BBL tapos na. And the MI will give it to me, I will sign it doon sa Eid’l Fitr,” Duterte said. The Eid’l Fitr schedule with Muslim leaders is supposedly tonight, June 27.
Duterte said he would be “brutally frank” during the meeting.
“It’s time to be candid and to be brutally frank. Ano ba ito? Is this a — this document would be the floodgate of peace in the land of Mindanao?” he said.
The proposed BBL, which will be the political which will be soon submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte is a democratic law and reflective of the interest of the people, BTC Chair and MILF Vice Chairman Ghazali Jaafar said.
“This is a truly democratic BBL. It represents the interest of all the stakeholders in holders in area — of course, the Muslim Bangsamoro people, the non-Bangsamoro indigenous community, the Christians, traditional leaders, women, youth,” Jaafar told ANC in an interview.
Jaafar said some provisions of the previous BBL were included in the new draft because the BTC deemed it as necessary.
Among the provisions, for instance, was about the Bangsamoro police force which he pointed out that it would be a separate entity from the Philippine National Police.
“In order for the Bangsamoro government to effectively operate to protect themselves, it has to have security, of course, in consultation with our consultant or expert on the issue of security. We believe we did some very significant improvement. These consultants are retired generals in PNP and lawyers,” he said. (davaotoday.com)
