Hataman appeals for immediate passage of BBL

Resigned Anak Mindanao (AMIN) party-list Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman poses for a picture with husband, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Mujiv Hataman, at the House of Representatives press office after delivering her final privilege speech at the lower chamber on Monday. Photo by Vince F. Nonato.

Moments away from finally relinquishing her post as a congresswoman, resigned Anak Mindanao (AMIN) party-list Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman pleaded to the members of the House of Representatives to urgently pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

In her final speech, the Muslim lawmaker sought for her colleagues’ “compassion and discernment” to approve the BBL and “win back our people.” Hataman, a member of the 16th and 17th Congress, is a co-author of the proposed measure.

“I leave appealing to your compassion and discernment, with hope in our leaders, and faith in the President to make true his vow to pass the BBL. I appeal to you, we may be a little too late, as we all know now, but please let us not miss this opportunity, probably the last, to win back our people,” Hataman said.

“As I go back, may this be a gift I can offer them from you, not a gift as a token of benevolence, but a gift we so truly deserve, not just from the House of Representatives, not just from this administration, but from the Filipino people,” she added.

Hataman said that though her move to resign was not an easy decision, she decided to “be back home” in Mindanao where she is “most needed.”

“I pray that in the four years I served Anak Mindanao as its voice in the House of Representatives, I have returned this honor,” Hataman noted.

According to Hataman, her realization to return to Mindanao “became strongly evident” when conflict broke out in Marawi City.

“I am not from the city, but the impact of what happened brought me to so many questions and self-reflections, thoughts of where I am and where I am most needed,” Hataman said.

Hataman would yield her seat to AMIN party-list’s third nominee, Amihilda Sangcopan, who was the group’s chief-of-staff from the 12th to 14th Congress. A second seat for AMIN party-list at the lower chamber is being held by Rep. Makmod Mending, Jr.

While the lawmaker admitted that her job was not an easy task, she remained grateful for the honor of being “the people’s voice.”

“Being a member of the House of Representatives is indeed a great honor, to be the people’s voice, to be their representative, to decide and cast a vote for and in their behalf, on policies and laws that affect their lives, from conception to death. To run this government and determine this country’s future, to build the foundations upon which this nation’s tomorrow shall stand, and create a path unto which the children of this nation, our own children, shall take their journey,” Hataman said.

“For while it is the very nature of this institution in the performance of her mandate to always divide the House, it is our greater accountability to keep this nation and the people, whole,” she added.

Hataman was vice chairperson of the House committee on human rights, and a member of the committees on indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples, women and gender equality, and Mindanao and Muslim affairs, among others.       /kga