DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 Sept) – Voting viva voce, the House of Representatives passed on second reading Monday night House Bill 10121 extending until 2025 the transition period in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by resetting the date of the first election of the 80-member Bangsamoro Parliament from May 2022 to May 2025.
The passage of the bill comes exactly a week after the Senate passed on third and last reading Senate Bill 2214 but the House and Senate versions differ on which President will appoint new members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the body tasked to govern the BARMM during the transition period that would have ended on June 30, 2022, as provided by Republic Act 11054 or the Organic Law for the BARMM, but is being extended to June 30, 2025.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte sounds the agong to signal the inauguration of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex in Cotabato City on March 29, 2019. Joining the President is BARMM Interim Chief Minister Al Haj Murad Ebrahim. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
The Senate version leaves it to the next President to appoint the BTA members after the term of the incumbent BTA members expires on June 30, 2022. Its Section 2 provides that “upon the expiration of the terms of the incumbent members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the President shall appoint the eighty members of the said BTA who shall serve up to June 30, 2025 or until their successors shall have been elected.”
President Rodrigo Duterte ends his six-year term at noon on June 30, 2022.
During the deliberations on August 25, when the Senate passed SB 2214 on second reading, senators from the majority and minority agreed to leave it to the next President to appoint the BTA members who will serve during the extended period from noon of June 30, 2022 to June 30, 2025.
Senate OKs Bangsamoro transition extension; next President to appoint BTA members serving until 2025
HB 10121, which was approved by three committees, originally had the same Section 2 as the Senate’s, the provision copied verbatim. But 1st district Maguindanao Rep. Roonie Sinsuat proposed an amendment Monday night that the plenary approved, to read: “During the extension of the Transition Period, the BTA shall continue as the interim government in the BARMM provided that upon approval of this act the President shall appoint the 80 new interim members of the BTA who shall hold office until the May 2025 elections where duly elected officials shall have qualified and assumed office.”
The extended period being referred to by both the Senate and the House is that period from noon of June 30, 2022 to noon of June 30, 2025.
Bicam
The September 13 passage on second reading of HB 10121 at the House came 18 days before the filing of certificates of candidacy for the May 9, 2022 polls. The first regular election of the 80-member Bangsamoro Parliament would have been synchronized on that day but Congress is resetting it to May 2025.[]/a> with |||
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Hataman served as Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for seven years and two months, assuming the post as OIC from December 2011 to June 30, 2013 of an ARMM that was then described as a “failed experiment.” Hataman introduced reforms as OIC and was elected for two terms as governor of an autonomous region but he governed under a law whose provisions restricted the exercise of genuine autonomy, including fiscal autonomy.
Established in 1990, the ARMM was abolished when the BARMM was created in early 2019.
Hataman reminded his colleagues the need to ensure the success of the BARMM because failure in the BARMM “is not only a failure of the MILF and GPH. Higit sa lahat, failure ng Bangsamoro people.”
He said everyone must help to make the autonomous region succeed. BARMM, he added, should not be MILF exclusive or Maguindanao exclusive but all-inclusive. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
