Speaker slams Escudero, Marcos for seeing bicameral deadlock on BBL

LEADERS of the House of Representatives lashed out on Monday, at two senators for suggesting that the two chambers of Congress were headed for a clash due to irreconcilable versions of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

“Papa-pogi lang ‘yang mga kandidatong ‘yan (Those candidates are just trying to make themselves look good),” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said of Senators Francis Escudero and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

He said the senators should first pass their version of the BBL before speaking of scenarios during the bicameral conference, when differences between the approved versions of the House and the Senate would be reconciled.

“Let them pass it first before they talk of bicam,” Belmonte said in a text message.

On Sunday, Escudero said it would be “impossible” for President Aquino to sign the BBL before his last State of the Nation Address on July 27, as the two Houses would likely have a bruising battle during the bicameral conference because of “very different versions” of the measure.

On the other hand, Marcos, chair of the Senate committee on local government, said the Senate, as the more independent body, would not allow the “railroading” of the bill that purportedly occurred at the House.

The House ad hoc panel last week approved a version of the bill that was drafted the night before in Malacañang in President Aquino’s company.

The speedy approval at the committee level over a span of three days had sparked criticisms and speculations that Mr. Aquino had influenced the drafting of the final version, and the subsequent voting.

Echoing the Speaker’s comment, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, the committee chair, on Monday also took exception to Escudero’s and Marcos’s remarks, questioning their political motivations.

If the House was beholden to Malacañang, “these senators are beholden to public opinion,” he said in a phone interview.

Rodriguez said it was obvious that the senators were taking their cue from recent surveys indicating scant popular support for the BBL, which would enact a peace agreement between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the hope of ending decades of fighting in Muslim Mindanao.

A Pulse Asia survey in the first week of March showed that 44 percent of the 1,200 respondents polled “disagreed” with the passage of the BBL, while only 21 percent agreed. More than a third of the respondents, or 36 percent, were undecided.

Rodriguez said the Senate members should open their minds to the BBL, instead of relying on public opinion, which could still change.

He said the amendments introduced and approved by his 75-member panel last week had cured the problems of constitutionality that were raised by the senators and other personalities.

On the controversial “opt-in provision,” which would allow contiguous areas to join the new Bangsamoro entity through plebiscites in the fifth or 10th year after passage of the bill, Rodriguez said the House would not take a hardline stance.

“This is open to discussion. We will try to convince them that this provision is constitutional, and then we will vote whether it would be retained or deleted,” Rodriguez said.

He said the House has been able to remain on target to pass the BBL on second and third reading by June 11, when Congress would adjourn sine die.

Rodriguez said the BBL panel would ask the rules committee to allow marathon plenary debates on June 1-4, and 8-11, to accommodate all the concerns of the lawmakers.

If approved, the House members would be able to deliberate on the measure from 10 a.m. to 12 midnight every day over eight days.

On Monday, he said he and Speaker Belmonte would send a letter asking President Aquino to certify the BBL as urgent, so that the chamber would pass the bill on second and third reading on the same day.

The certification is necessary, as otherwise, the three-day notice rule will apply to be able to pass a measure on third reading upon approval on second reading. SFM/AC