Speaker Belmonte: BBL has no chance in current Congress

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has admitted that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) has no chance of being passed in the 16th Congress.

Belmonte agreed with the sentiment of House Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong, who in a privilege speech on Wednesday declared that he had “closed the book of hope for the passage of the Bangsamoro basic law.”

READ: House leader gives up hope on BBL passage: We failed next generation

Belmonte said that even if the House approved the bill, the Senate had not acted on its version of the BBL, which in Congress is now the Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Area of Responsibility (BLBAR).

“Representative Balindong has other angles, but no question that it (BBL) won’t become a law even if we pass our version. The Senate has not been acting on it,” Belmonte said on Thursday.

This means Congress may be passing the buck to the next administration even though President Benigno Aquino III wants to pass the priority piece of legislation as a landmark achievement of his term.

Congress will go on break on Feb. 5 as candidates are expected to start their campaign in this year’s elections.

In his privilege speech, Balindong said the lack of quorum in the past session days was obviously deliberate in an effort to stall the passage of the BBL.

Balindong said the Jan. 25, 2015, Mamasapano incident, a botched antiterror raid where 67 persons died in a firefight between Special Action Force policemen and Moro Islamic Liberation Front members, also thwarted the passage of the bill.

The attack gripped public attention as 44 SAF cops and five civilians were slain by members of MILF and private armed groups.

The proposed BBL seeks to implement the government peace deal with the MILF.

Balindong said the House of Representatives failed the people of Mindanao for failing to pass the bill that would have ended the decades-long Moro insurgency in the region.

“Because of the Mamasapano, many of those who supported the BBL wittingly or unwittingly punished the Moro people by denying us of the required votes and even the quorum to deliberate on the BBL,” he said.

Balindong said he could tell from his colleagues’ actions that they were deliberately avoiding the BBL by skipping sessions to prevent its passage.

“Now, all of these moments of peace and accord are to be washed away, in one final denial of our Muslim birthright … I feel it in the sheer lack of quorum which is obviously a deliberate tactic to filibuster and lose much needed time to pass the BBL,” Balindong said.

He blamed his colleagues for being biased against their Muslim counterparts.

(W)ith one tragic and unexpected event not of our own making, the Mamasapano encounter has labeled us again as terrorists, extremists, enemies, traitors and murderers. I have personally witnessed and heard the bashing and lashing against the Moros not only over the media but right in this hall of Congress,” he said.

Balindong also said the radicals may ride on the death of the BBL.

“The nonapproval of the BBL would be a good recipe for radicalization. If we speak of radicals and militants, they usually thrive on situations like this. If the BBL is not approved, then they will try to ride on the situation,” he said. RC

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