Santiago: BBL sure to be challenged in SC

MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago believes the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is riddled with an “abundance of unconstitutional features” that it is bound to be challenged in the Supreme Court immediately after its passage in Congress.

And its fate there has no time limit because “you could not hurry” the Supreme Court, Santiago said on Thursday.

Santiago urged Malacañang to form a body to review the unconstitutional features of the BBL, including the provision that would establish a new, autonomous region in Mindanao called Bangsamoro.

Palace says no

But the Palace rejected calls for a review of the BBL, insisting that the Office of the President reviewed and revised the measure before submitting it to Congress last year.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said it was clear in President Aquino’s speech during the 29th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution last month that he wanted the peace process to move forward.

“And the most significant step would be to go on with the process of enacting the draft BBL,” Coloma told reporters.

President Aquino told congressional leaders earlier not to “dilute” the BBL, apparently echoing the position of the MILF.

Leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed to pass the BBL by June, before the end of the regular session of the 16th Congress.

Santiago said what was important was not the date that Congress would pass the BBL but the date that the Supreme Court would decide on its constitutionality.

“To say, for example, that by this year 2015 we will have peace in Mindanao because of this process is misguided,” Santiago told reporters.

Review committee

She said the only way to save the BBL and the peace process itself was for Malacañang to form a committee that would review the proposed law for its unconstitutional features, which she added were “so many at this point.”

She also disagreed with the notion that the BBL would spell peace in Mindanao.

“Right now what I hear around me is calls for appeasement, as if peace equals the BBL. That is not so. That is wrong mathematics,” Santiago said.

The peace process itself was illegal from the get-go, she said.

For one, both President Aquino and the MILF did not get proper authority to negotiate with each other for peace in Mindanao.

In the case of the President, Santiago said Aquino should have asked the Senate because under the Constitution, foreign policy power was shared between the President and Congress, specifically the Senate.

“It should be the Senate of the Philippines, at least we are the representatives of the people. He is not… A treaty not concurred in by us is invalid, what more the creation of a substate?” she said, adding that there was “no question that what the BBL is creating is a substate.”

Who authorized MILF?

In the case of the MILF, Santiago questioned who authorized the group to represent the Bangsamoro people at the peace table.

And because of this, her forecast was that should the BBL be passed in June, there would be an “internal war,” this time “among those claiming to be leaders” of the Bangsamoro people.

She said the normal procedure for the two sides was exhibiting and exchanging credentials to show that they were authorized to sit at the peace table so that they would start in the “proper legal footing.”

Speaking about the unconstitutional features of the BBL, Santiago mentioned the creation of a substate, referring to the establishment of a Bangsamoro political entity that, she stressed, is “never mentioned once” in the Constitution.

She said the Constitution provided for only an autonomous region and thus she questioned the constitutional basis for the promotion of a substate.

“Unless the BBL is first of all transformed into a document for more regional autonomy or autonomy under guises, it has no legal basis at all from the very start,” she said.

Sovereignty

Another unconstitutional feature of the BBL, she said, is that the proposed law “infringes on sovereignty of our country because there are certain powers reserved in the parliament under the BBL, that is exclusive to them.”

“If their powers are exclusive, that means they exclude even the powers of our own state,” Santiago said.

Santiago said that the constitutional problems besetting the BBL “will prove to be [its] undoing.”

She maintained that the Constitution is “immutable” and cannot be changed.

On remarks by MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal that the MILF and the government panels should negotiate the Constitution, Santiago said this was “not intelligent” as the Constitution was “nonnegotiable.”

“They recognize we have a Constitution … and yet they tell us we must negotiate first. We cannot negotiate a constitutional provision no matter how solitary it is, no matter how minor it seems to others,” she said.

“So to summarize, we have a big problem. To paraphrase, Houston, we have a big problem,” Santiago said.

Start again

Asked whether the government should scrap the BBL and restart the peace negotiations, Santiago said that personally she would “start the process all over again” with Malacañang asking the Senate if it was willing to grant the President the power to negotiate a separate form of government.

This is in effect telling the President that he is “limited to what the Constitution [says],” she said.

“But since events have already taken place, it’s best if Malacañang forms its own review committee to review the BBL for unconstitutional features,” she said, adding this was the best alternative, instead of the judiciary or the Senate giving its own suggestions.

Consult with legal experts

Santiago said the Palace could consult with the law experts she invited when her committee on constitutional amendments tackled legal and constitutional questions on the BBL.

She also said she was ready to submit her committee report to Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who chairs the committee on local government that was tasked to be on top of the BBL hearings.