BTC lawyer urges bicam committee to restore deleted BBL provisions

Lawyer Algamar Latiph of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission speak at the Saturday News Forum on July 7, 2018, at the University Hotel at the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City. (Photo from an INQUIRER.net video)

A lawyer of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) urged legislators to restore provisions in the original Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that were deleted during separate debates in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.

“I hope legislators in the bicameral committee will be reasonable and see that this drafting this BBL is a lengthy process and that it’s a peace agreement and that it’s for the development of the Bangsamoro and the Philippines as well,” lawyer Algamar Latiph said in Filipino at the Saturday News Forum, which was held on July 7 at the University Hotel at the Universtiy of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

“The whole Philippines will benefit from this,” he went on. “The provisions that were deleted should be restored and this BBL should not be any less than [the charter of] the ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao].”

This July, the final version of the BBL, which will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, will be decided by the bicameral conference committee, which is composed of 28 senators and representatives.

Several civil society groups in Mindanao also expressed alarm over the House version of the BBL, which reportedly reduced the power of the Bangsamoro.

The groups called on the House to make sure the final version of the law would match what was settled in the earlier agreement.

READ: Reduced power of Bangsamoro worries Mindanao groups

“We hope the Bangsamoro government that will be built will be relevant and responsive, because if you will place a BBL that is diluted and won’t be able to give solution to poverty in Bansamoro, poverty and development might still continue to have conflict,” Latiph said.