Drilon: Stars didn’t align for BBL passage

Senate President Franklin Drilon INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senate President Franklin Drilon on Saturday said the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will not likely be passed in the 16^th Congress due to quorum woes hounding the House of Representatives and the upcoming campaign period for the May national elections.

“I sent word to the President na talagang mahirap na (that it appears very difficult)… Mukhang hindi maipapasa sa House of Representatives bago mag-February 3 dahil alam naman natin na hirap sila sa quorum kaya hindi mo mata-transmit sa Senado ang BBL bago kami mag-adjourn. Wala na po kaming panahon (It seems that it won’t be passed in the House of Representatives before February 9 since we are aware that they find it hard to achieve quorum so the bill won’t be transmitted to the Senate before we adjourn. We have no time left), although the BBL remains on top of our agenda,” Drilon said in an interview with radio DWIZ.

Even if the BBL reached the Senate, Drilon said it would be difficult for senators to sit on it, noting that Senator Juan Ponce Enrile was not yet finished with the interpellation, while the others were busy for their electoral campaigns.

“Si Senator Juan Ponce Enrile – hindi pa tapos sa interpellation at sinabi niya pa sa akin na kailangan niya pa ng panahon. Si Senator Bongbong Marcos naman, medyo busy na sa kampanya. The reality is that the election campaign is already here. Ang aming Senate Majority Leader ho, medyo hirap din ho, dahil busy rin sa kampanya. Kaya for all these things hindi rin namin kayang tapusin itong BBL na hindi pa nga po nakakarating sa amin from the House,” he said.

(Senator Juan Ponce Enrile – he isn’t done with interpellation yet and he told me that he still needs time. Senator Bongbong Marcos is quite busy with the campaign. The reality is that the election campaign is already here. Our Senate Majority Leader is also having difficulty because he is also busy with the campaign. So with all of these, we can’t proceed with the BBL which hasn’t even reached us from the House.)

Even House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte had admitted that it was almost impossible to pass the BBL before the Congress adjourns.

READ: Speaker Belmonte: BBL has no chance in current Congress

But despite the circumstances, Drilon noted that the President strived to pass the piece of legislation during his term.

“Talaga pong sinikap ng Pangulo na maipasa ito ngunit (The President truly persevered to pass this, but) the circumstances – the stars did not align themselves, ika nga, para maipasa po ito (as they would say, to pass this bill),” he said.

The Senate President reiterated his previous remark that the BBL was the “45^th victim”of the botched Mamasapano operation last year, which left 44 Special Action Force commandos and several others dead.

“Kundi rin po nadivert ang attention namin sa Mamasapano hearings ay baka po natapos namin ito earlier, nagkaroon po ng mahabang debate tungkol dito, attention was devoted to Mamasapano, hanggang nitong Miyerkules ng nakaraang linggo ay Mamasapano pa rin ang ating pinaguusapan, kaya po hirap na hirap kami,” he said.

(If our attention weren’t diverted to the Mamasapano hearings, perhaps we could have finished this earlier, have a longer debate on this, [but] attention was devotd to Mamasapano – up to last Wednesday, we were still talking about Mamasapano, that’s why we are also having difficulties.) CDG

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