DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/10 May) — “The future of Mindanao and the Philippines is in your hands,” a Catholic priest said as he and other supporters of the peace process urged the 75 members of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law to cast their vote in favor of a Bangamoro Basic Law (BBL) that is faithful to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that the peace panels of the government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Font (MILF) signed after 17 years of negotiations.
The Committee will begin voting on May 11 and 12, and according to Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the AHCBBL, May 13, “if necessary.”
Once approved, the Committee Report is expected to be brought to the Plenary on May 18 for debates.
Monday’s voting, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. in open session, will be greeted by a mass action of peace groups marching from St. Peter’s Parish along Commonwealth Avenue to the House of Representatives from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Fr. Amado Picardal, Executive Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Basic Ecclesial Communities, said the BBL “is the fruit of the peace negotiation between the government and the MILF that can lead to a lasting peace based on justice in Mindanao. The future of Mindanao and the Philippines is in your hands. Please pass the BBL without watering it down. We are all tired of war. Peace is our only option.”
Last week, Mindanao’s lone Cardinal, Orlando B. Quevedo, the Archbishop of Cotabato, said legislators “are the key holders to a just and lasting peace in the Southern Philippines.”
“In the Bangsamoro Basic Law, the peace process of more than 15 years is in their hands. They can lock the door to lasting peace if they so emasculate the BBL as to make the Bangsamoro self-determination a meaningless word. Or they can unlock the door to a just peace if they act as the final crowning peacemakers who will create a Bangsamoro self-determining territory worth its name, as part and parcel of the Philippine republic,” he said.
An entire nation’s future
Addressing the Committee members, Gus Miclat, Executive Director of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) and co-convenor of the Mindanao Peaceweavers, said: “One is not given such a rare opportunity in his or her lifetime to help shape someone’s, nay, an entire people’s– an entire nation’s future. That is where you are at today. But even with such an awesome responsibility and a ton of expectations either way, you are already blessed,” he said, adding he prays that “you will pass on your blessing to Mindanao as you soberly deliberate and decide on passing an inclusive and just Bangsamoro Basic Law that not only adheres to the spirit of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, but that will also finally unshackle the Bangsamoro people from the bondage of bigotry, the barnacles of underdevelopment and the cuffs of colonialism.”
“May you be guided by the divine wisdom that reside in the tears of the mothers and widows in Maguindanao, the wry wrinkles and dry throats of evacuees in the makeshift camps in Pikit and Parang, the calloused fingers and throbbing hearts of soldiers and mujahideens in the fastness of Lanao and Sulu, and the smiles and soft laughter of the children in the fields, backyards, classrooms and streets all over Mindanao. Pass the BBL. It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Historic opportunity
Samira Gutoc of the Young Moro Professionals and Friends of Peace, has a simple message to the legislators: “Let your name carve out in memory as one who pushed and signed the basic bill that fundamentally altered the lives of conflict-battered civilians.”
Government peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer is asking Congress to “please make a good BBL your legacy to the country” while MILF peace panel and concurrent BTC chair Mohagher Iqbal says legislators “should rise above selves and respond to the call of peace by passing a good BBL.”
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles said the country is“faced with the historic opportunity to finally fulfill the constitutional mandate and promise of true autonomy; bring to an end four decades of violent conflict in Mindanao; install and strengthen democratic institutions to overcome deprivation and lawlessness; and collectively embrace and celebrate the richness of our multiple identities, cultures, and narratives.”
She said she hopes legislators will “wholeheartedly claim – and not deny nor squander – their key role in fulfilling this opportunity that may not come again within our lifetime.”
“We need a BBL that will embody our best hopes and not give in to our worst fears. In the coming vote on the BBL, please let the children be the focus of attention and concern – their lives, their future – the children of Mamasapano equally with the children of Metro Manila.”
Reminder
For Datu Michael Mastura, a former congressman of Maguindanao and an active member of the MILF negotiating peace panel until November 2012, “it’s not for the 75 representatives to decide the future political status of the Bangsamoro people. That right belongs properly to the Bangsamoro only.”
Mastura said the Committee’s draft bill “must reflect but not supplant three intertwined documents,” citing the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), CAB and BBL.
“A full House debate must be substantial on the negotiated provisions,” he asid.
The Committee Report, he stressed, “must contain various legal due diligence review by the Office of the President and take into consideration the Ad Referendum by GPH and MILF negotiating panels to their respective principals.”
“A plenary debate is essential to give broader constituency perspectives. To engage in a line by line voting is a form of ‘vetocracy’ that arrogates to a few House members the cut and paste process of legislative mill,” he said.
Mastura explained that during the negotiations, he insisted that the President certifies the bill as urgent; and that a congressional resolution be passed to support the BBL “as enabling means to flesh out the negotiated provisions.”
“Both resolutions expressing ‘the sense’ of Congress were passed, though not jointly but separately. This was done when now Justice (Marvic) Leonen (then government peace panel chair) and I were actively serving in the opposite sides of the Peace Panels! I am putting this on record as an important reminder to that honorable ‘sense’ of both Chambers of Congress where once I sat as an elected member.”
Congressional resolutions, Certified Urgent
The FAB, signed October 15, 2012, provided for the creation of the Transition Commission, the body that would draft the Bangsamoro Basic Law, “through an Executive Order and supported by Congressional Resolutions.”
The Senate and the House of Representatives passed resolutions separately but on the same day – on December 19, 2012 – House Resolution 971 and Senate Resolution 922 — in support of the December 17 Executive Order creating the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), the 15-member, MILF-led GPH-MILF body tasked to draft the Basic Law.
The FAB also provided under Article VII, Section 7 that the draft BBL submitted by the BTC “shall be certified as an urgent bill by the President.”
Congress resumed sessions on May 4, after a six-week break to deliberate on priority legislations, including the BBL. But Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr.[]
told MindaNews on May 4 that President Aquino has yet to issue a certificate of urgency on the matter of the BBL.
“I think he wants to take a look at it first before he does. As of now, wala pa,” Belmonte said.
Rodriguez told MindaNews last month that he expected the certificate of urgency to be issued by the President “when sessions resume.[]
