QUEZON CITY, OCT. 5 (PIA)--The Bangsamoro aspiration for self-determination and genuine autonomy as reflected in a meaningful Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and signed peace agreements with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) should be integrated into the country’s socio-political institutions, said research academic institution Ateneo University system.
“The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is proposed today not as ordinary legislation. Crafted to do social justice, it emerges from seventeen years of peace negotiations for Muslim Mindanao. It seeks to rectify past errors, to reverse injustices committed in prejudice and hatred against Muslims in Mindanao,” said the Ateneo system in a paid advertisement that came out in select major newspapers today.
“It charts a better future for the Bangsamoro peoples and cultures and thus for the People of the Philippines,” it continued.
The statement was signed by Ateneo de Davao University President Fr. Joel E Tabora, SJ; Ateneo de Manila University President Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin, SJ; Ateneo de Naga University President Fr. Primitivo E. Viray, Jr., SJ; Ateneo de Zamboanga University President Fr. Karel S. San Juan, SJ; Xavier University Presiedent Fr. Roberto C. Yap, SJ.
The Ateneo presidents explained that with regard the BBL, the legislators were not “only hewers of laws” but “builders of peace” and “architects of our future”. They also warned lawmakers against squandering “their fragile moment for building peace through absence from crucial legislative sessions, indifference, or fear.”
The statement was alluding to the lack of quorum that has plagued the House of Representatives plenary debate on the BBL. Since session resumed last July, quorum had only been achieved a few times causing further delay to the passage of the basic law that will establish a parliamentary Bangsamoro government to replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
On 27 March 2014, the government and the MILF signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that served as basis for the drafting of the original draft of the BBL. The bill was transmitted to Congress by President Benigno S. Aquino III on 10 September 2014.
The House ad hoc committee on the BBL and the Senate committee on local government conducted numerous public hearings across the country before coming up with their substitute bills known as the Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR). Their respective BLBARs were the versions endorsed for plenary debates.
Both the House and Senate leadership are currently targeting 16 December 2015 as the new deadline for the passage of the BBL. Congress is expected to go into recess by the end of the week and to resume work on 3 November 2015.
10-point agenda for the BBL
“Building peace, we believe, should be based on the foundation of forged agreements. We believe in the negotiated process that achieved the CAB,” said the Ateneo presidents further before highlighting a ten-point agenda they believe is necessary in ensuring the passage of a meaningful BBL.
Aside from the “[r]ecognition of the Bangsamoro identity and its peoples’ aspirations based on their right to self-determination” and the “[i]ntegration of the spirit of the CAB in the proposed legislation in fidelity to the 1987 Philippine Constitution and its mandate for an autonomous region for Muslim Mindanao”, the Ateneo presidents maintain that the BBL should have “[p]rovisions that surpass, not diminish, the provisions of the Expanded Organic Act for the ARMM (RA 9054), further enhancing what Filipino Muslims already enjoy under this law”.
The Ateneo presidents also maintained the importance of accepting the “concept of asymmetrical political entity where the Bangsamoro Government enjoys powers greater than LGUs but fully subject to national governance” and that the would-be regional government should be empowered to lead its peoples to a future they desire based on the genius of their rich culture.”
Other points raised in the statement include: Measures to strengthen the Shariah courts and their applicability to the Bangsamoro followers of Islam; Bangsamoro entitlement to create its own sources of revenue and to levy taxes, fees and charges guided by the principles of devolution of powers; A just and equitable share in the revenues generated through the exploration, development and utilization of the natural resources, consistent with the principles of environmental stewardship, within the jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro;
The statement also included the following: Full respect and protection for civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights of all the inhabitants including the indigenous peoples, women, children and youth in the Bangsamoro territory and support for the passage of laws that promote, uphold and protect the same; and [t]ransitional justice and normalization clauses, reflective of the spirit and intent of the CAB.
In separate statements, both policy center Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and academic consortium Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) called for the same, highlighting the primacy of immediately passing a BBL that is based on social justice. (ADMU/RJB/SDL PIA-NCR)
See more at: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/231444030398/ateneo-rally-lawmakers-to-pass-a-meaningful-bbl#sthash.OIaMorOF.dpuf
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