THE Presidential Legislative Liaison Office will submit the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to Congress this week, Malacañang said Monday.
In a press conference, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the executive branch was optimistic that the lawmakers would prioritize the proposed Moro law crafted by 21-man Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) to ensure its immediate passage.
Abella said it would also now be up to the Congress whether it would merge the BTC's version of BBL with Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's proposed measure seeking to create Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.
"The Presidential Legislative Liaison Office will officially transmit the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law to Congress this week," Abella told Palace reporters.
"We leave it to Congress to act on the matter we dispatched, including consolidating the Palace version of House Bill 6121 filed by Representative Gloria Arroyo. I’m sure she has certain positions regarding the matter, and it will be up to Congress to consolidate that, which is pertinent to the BBL," he added.
On July 17, the BTC submitted a "better version" of the BBL to President Rodrigo Duterte at the Palace's Rizal Hall.
MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar, chair of BTC, said the new BBL is now "more inclusive," with the widest inclusivity of all important stakeholders.
"[The draft BBL] reflects the diversity of interests of the Bangsamoro people, non-Bangsamoro indigenous people... These interests are united under one goal -- establish a just, dignified and lasting peace," Jaafar said at the turn-over ceremony.
The crafting of BBL is part of the implementation process of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) signed between the Aquino administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014.
The draft law, which will serve as an enabling law of the CAB, will establish a Bangsamoro entity that would replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
During the second State of the Nation Address of the President on July 24, Duterte endorsed the revised BBL drafted by the BTC, which he said, "truly reflects the aspirations of our Muslim brothers and sisters."
Arroyo's version of the BBL, on the other hand, aims to "achieve just and lasting peace for a unified union" by creating a new political division that will be called "Bangsamoro Autonomous Region" that is consisted of the present geographical area of the Armm. (SunStar Philippines)