A MINORITY lawmaker urged the 75-man ad hoc committee for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law to invite the country's leading constitutional experts to ensure that the enabling law for controversial measure will strictly adhere to and conform to the Constitution.
Isabela Representative Rodolfo Albano III said the ad hoc committee headed by Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez said should also invite the likes of noted constitutional law expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas and Christian Monsod, who were among the living members of the Constitutional Commission who drafted the 1987 Charter and as well as the deans of the college of law of various universities, to ensure that the contentious and controversial provisions contained in the draft law submitted by Malacañang are properly discussed and acted upon by Congress.
Albano added that the special panel should also invite Retired Supreme Court Justice Manuel Lazaro and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to help in the discussions of some of the contentious provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro Charter, which critics have declared as "unconstitutional."
The lawmaker made the statement in response to the proposal of Misamis Occidental Representative Henry Oaminal, vice chair of the House committee on constitutional amendments, to invite rogue Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chair Nur Misuari and Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters leader Ameril Umbra Kato as resource persons to the scheduled the BBL hearings starting September 24.
"Instead of just inviting fugitive rebel leaders like Misuari and Umbra Kato as resource persons, we must also invite the best and the brightest legal mind and heads of vanguard organizations like Philconsa and the IBP which are committed to protecting and defending the Constitution to enlighten Congress on the so-called 'problematic' provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law," Albano said.
Albano stressed that legal experts on the Constitution can share with legislators and would help enlighten non-lawyer members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to understand the various ramifications of the contentious and controversial provisions contained in the draft law that the Palace wants Congress to pass with dispatch.
"All the effort, time and resources of Congress being wasted if we pass a BBL peace pact which will only be questioned before the Supreme Court because of serious legal infirmities," Albano warned. (Sunnex)