‘Battered but not out’: 4 key provisions in BBL face amendments

Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, Mohagher Iqbal and Sen. Francis Escudero. FILE PHOTOS

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—At least four key provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), including one that would give the prospective Bangsamoro autonomous region P75 billion in initial budget, are being reviewed and likely to be amended by the Senate, according to Sen. Francis Escudero, one of President Benigno Aquino III’s closest allies.

Mr. Aquino has formed a peace council that will review and introduce improvements to the BBL, which has been thrown off-track by a clash between government counterterrorism forces and Moro rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, on Jan. 25.

Both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are trying to save the BBL to complete the peace process that culminated in the signing of a peace agreement a year ago.

“The BBL is battered but it’s not yet out, and I think there is now some sort of recovery,” Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, said at an open-air gathering organized by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Oppap) on Friday night to celebrate the first anniversary of the peace agreement.

Iqbal said part of the recovery was the formation of the peace council announced by President Aquino on Friday afternoon.

READ: Aquino forms peace council

Discussion to be led by the council, Iqbal said, will “help push the peace process, especially in Congress.”

Congress is on recess for Lent, but hearings on the BBL will be held to meet a deadline set by the leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the measure by June, before the second regular session of the 16th Congress adjourns.

Speaking to reporters in Legazpi City on Friday hours before President Aquino announced the formation of the peace council, Escudero said the BBL that would emerge from the Senate would definitely be different from the original proposal.

READ: Gov’t peace panel urges lawmakers to fix ‘illegal’ BBL provisions

“The BBL would be passing strict scrutiny as if it would pass through an eye of a needle,” Escudero said. “We will decide what is right and what is wrong.”