Palace: Non-ratification by House of Bangsomoro Organic Law ‘temporary setback’

Malacañang on Monday found it “unfortunate'' that the House of Representatives failed to ratify the harmonized version of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in time for the State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The House failed to ratify the draft prepared by the bicameral conference committee amid moves to oust Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

The Senate approved the document earlier in the day.

Duterte was expected to sign the bill into law when he delivers his third report to the nation later Monday.

''We find it unfortunate that the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) was not ratified before the adjournment of today's session of the House of Representatives,'' presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

Roque, however, considered the development a ''temporary setback in the administration’s goal of laying the foundation for a more genuine and lasting peace in Mindanao.''

''We, however, remain confident that President Duterte will sign the Bangsamoro Organic Law as soon as both houses of Congress finally ratify the bill,'' the Palace official said.

Duterte's peace adviser, Jesus Dureza, attributed the delay of the ratification to the leadership issue in the House.

"The BOL's non-ratification came when the House suddenly adjourned and it had nothing to do at all with some substantive issues of the proposed law," he said.

"The BOL suffered this temporary setback, as a 'collateral damage' to an internal leadership issue in the House but I trust and expect that in due, the ratification which it deserves, will take place as a matter of course," Dureza added.

Duterte has been pushing for the enactment of the BOL, which aims to end decades of conflict in Mindanao by creating a political entity that would enjoy greater autonomy than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News