Drilon: We still have chance to pass BBL before chamber adjourns

There is still a chance that the Senate could pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) by February next year, Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Thursday.

Drilon said the Senate will resume its deliberations on the BBL after it approves the proposed P3.002 trillion national budget for 2016.

“Pagkatapos ng budget ay ‘yung (After the budget will be the [deliberations on the] Bangsamoro Basic Law. We have only one senator who will interpellate, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. We are not aware of any other senator,” he said at a press conference.

“Assuming that this is the case, we should be able to terminate the period of debates by the first week of December. Assuming that there will be no senator who will interpellate, except Senator Enrile, then afterwards, we will go to the period of amendment.”

“We still have time. We have December 1 to December 18,” he further said.

READ: It’s back to BBL after Senate tackles budget, says Drilon | Malaysian PM confident BBL will be Aquino’s legacy

Asked then if there’s a chance that the BBL could still be passed by the chamber before it adjourns in February next year, Drilon said: “We have a chance.”

Aside from the 2016 budget, Drilon said the Senate will also approve the proposed Salary Standardization Law for government employees also before the year ends.

Congress will take a Christmas break next month. It will resume in January, 2016 and will adjourn the following month.

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