During the hearing of the House Committee on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity on Thursday, November 26, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez recommended the extension of the Bangsamoro transition, echoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s stand on the matter.

“If we want the transition to be successful, we need to give our Bangsamoro brothers and sisters ample time to lay the foundation,” said Galvez.

He stressed that although there has been progress achieved by both the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the national government “in moving forward the Bangsamoro peace process,” the current health crisis has affected the same.

“The movement of the peace workers as well as international peace partners have been restricted. Moreover, funds have been reduced since some of the resources were utilized for emergency purposes.”

Galvez, who also serves as the pandemic response chief implementer, said that COVID-19 also affected the crafting of the crucial legislative measures the Bangsamoro interim parliament needs to pass during the transition period.

Status of the priority codes

During the committee hearing, Lanao del Norte 1^st District Representative Khalid Dimaporo asked whether or not the electoral code for Bangsamoro will be released before October 2021, which he said is the regional government’s deadline in order for COMELEC to include parliamentary members in the ballot for 2022.

Bangsamoro Attorney General Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba said that both the electoral and the revenue codes are still at the cabinet committee level.

However, she said that the the regional government’s goal is to file the electoral code in the parliament early next year.

Attorney General Dumama-Alba also updated the status of the priority codes, where 3 have already been filed in the parliament and are all undergoing committee hearings: the civil service code, local government code, and education code.

She added that Bangsamoro’s electoral system will be different from how the usual Philippine elections are conducted.

“There is a challenge in terms of laying down how the electoral processes will be considering that it is a parliamentary form of government,” she said.

The transition, which is supposed to end on June 2022, will hold no elections should the extension be legislated. – Rappler.com