Belmonte ‘reasonably certain’ House has numbers to pass BBL

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr said on Tuesday, May 12, the House of Representatives has the numbers to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) despite delays in putting the bill to a vote. 

Amid a tight deadline, however, Belmonte said that the House would rather finalize a working draft rather than rush the passage of the law. 

“I’m reasonably certain that we have the numbers, but, more than that, mahirap iyong masyadong magulo (it would be difficult if the discussion is chaotic),” Belmonte told reporters. 

The 75-member House ad hoc committee on the BBL was supposed to put the bill to a vote on Monday but amendment proposals from about 12 legislators took up the time, causing the vote to be postponed. 

Close to 40 public hearings and weeks-long executive sessions were conducted prior to the scheduled Monday vote. 

The vote was initially reset to Tuesday, May 12. But House leaders agreed to move it to Monday, May 18, to give legislators more time to study the bill. The Speaker denied rumors that there is an alleged Liberal Party version of the bill that is being circulated around.  

The Monday night meeting included leaders of the administration Liberal Party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the Nacionalista Party, and the National Unity Party, Belmonte said. 

Despite the delay, Belmonte said the House can still beat the deadline to pass the law before Congress adjourns in June 11. 

“Yes, the timetable would be somewhat affected, but not that much because it would be difficult to have a labo-labo (freewheeling) type of a discussion on it and the proposed amendments,” Belmonte said. 

The new schedule leaves the House with only 3 weeks to debate on the BBL in the plenary, introduce further amendments, and pass it on second and third reading. 

Meanwhile, the Senate is set to wrap up committee hearings by the end of May. Both chambers of Congress postponed hearings on the BBL in the aftermath of the Mamasapano clash, which left 67 Filipinos dead. 

The BBL would still have to go through a bicameral conference committee in case of differences between the House and Senate versions. (READ: Senate, House panel chairs differ on key BBL provisions)

BBL amendments

The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law aims to create an enhanced autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao that is parliamentary in form, enjoying greater powers, resources, and possibly a larger territory in an attempt to end more than 40 years of war in the south. 

It implements the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed in March 2014 after 17 years of negotiations. 

Critics, however, have called the measure unconstitutional for creating a substate. 

Both House and Senate leaders have said that the BBL would not pass Congress without amendments. 

Belmonte admitted that some of the proposed amendments to the bill could take away powers that were already devolved to the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (READ: How different is ARMM from Bangsamoro?)

This includes the proposal to delete the provision giving the Bangsamoro chief minister the power to have operational control and supervision of the Bangsamoro Police. 

Belmonte was also the Speaker of the House when Republic Act 9054, which amended the law that created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was crafted and passed in 2001. 

Amid calls for lawmakers not to dilute the BBL, Belmonte is focused on consensus-building in the House. 

“I think a bill that is acceptable to most would settle the past so we would like to craft such a bill,” he said. – Rappler.com