Senate sets sked for deliberations on proposed BBL

THE Senate will finally  start plenary  deliberations on the   proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), Senate  President Franklin Drilon said on Monday.

Drilon said a committee report on the BBL will be filed  at the plenary on August 10 and it will be sponsored on the floor a day after.  The interpellation, he said, would start on August  17.

“That’s the schedule of the BBL. We will not set any deadline on the interpellation, so everybody will be given a chance to review the report that will be submitted,”  he told reporters  after an all-senator caucus.

The BBL  was  one of the six priority measures  that Congress wants to  approve before  President Benigno Aquino III steps  down from  office in 2016.

The other five priority measures are the proposed Freedom of Information bill,  the proposed 2016 national budget, the creation of the Department of Information and Technology, the proposed amendments to the build and operate and transfer law to strengthen the private, public, partnership, and the Pagasa modernization law.

READ: Drilon: Passing of FOI bill a priority before Aquino’s term ends