Bangsamoro Basic Law

The establishment of the Bangsamoro New Political Entity and the Bangsamoro Government depends on the Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front paves the way for Congress to repeal of the Organic Act (RA 9054) and pass a new legislation called the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which would be the CHARTER for the Bangsamoro New Political Entity or simply Bangsamoro.

 

The BBL shall be drafted by a 15-member ALL Bangsamoro Commission a.k.a. the Transitional Commission (TC), 7 members are nominated by the Philippine Government and 8 members including the Chair are nominees of the MILF. The draft BBL shall be certified by President Aquino as priority legislation and submitted to Congress.

 

Upon the passage of the BBL, both the Philippine Government and the MILF will work together to ensure its ratification by the qualified voters in a plebiscite called for the purpose within the identified core areas by the same legislation. There are three important phases involved in the production of the BBL. The first is the issuance of and Executive Order and a Congressional Resolution that would create the Transitional Commission (TC) tasked to draft the BBL. The most important input to the said Commission is the Comprehensive Agreement which in reality is the signed Framework Agreement plus the much awaited 4 annexes – the first two would define the core issues of the relations between the emerging Bangsamoro and the national government both on the power sharing and wealth sharing.

The other two annexes would lay out the mechanism of governance during the transition from ARMM to the new Political Entity, the normalization period and the gradual decommissioning of the MILF forces.

 

It is prayed that the first phase would NOT simply involve a ‘repackaging’ in legislative lingo of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF.  People hope that the All-Bangsamoro TC would engage, through public consultations, the stakeholders in producing a draft bill that would be the Basic Law. In this way, the BBL will enjoy wider and broader constituency within the core territory contemplated for the Bangsamoro.

 

The second phase is the actual legislation of the Basic Law by the Congress of the Republic. No doubt, this phase is more perilous for the simple reason that the greater number of the members in both the House and the Senate are not familiar with the context and processes that have been undertaken to produce the draft Basic Law.  The draft BBL, surely, would adopt new concepts like genuine self-rule in their local affairs, ministerial form of government and a new way of choosing the leadership (Elections) different from the rest of the country.  It is for this reason that the draft Basic Law should have wider and broader champions other than the MILF and the GPH peace panel.

 

The third phase is equally daunting. This is the plebiscite called for the purpose that would determine ultimately the future of the BBL and the actual constituents of the emerging Bangsamoro. In short, all stakeholders should ensure that the new Organic Act passed by Congress wins popular support. The transition period begins from the ARMM to the Bangsamoro only after this third stage is carried through successfully.  A Bangsamoro Transitional Authority is, then, established within the Bangsamoro constituent areas. In turn, it will assume all the authorities, functions of the ‘fading’ ARMM government as it exercises fully the new powers granted to it by the Basic Law.

 

In all these phases and processes, the focal point is the Bangsamoro Basic Law.  It is the CHARTER or the ‘Constitution’ of the Bangsamoro. It is of paramount importance that the actual and future constituents of the emerging Bangsamoro should participate in evolving the said document. The greater the general public is informed and involved in the process, the greater also the support the draft Basic Law would enjoy both in Congress as well as in the plebiscite that will be called to determine the areas that would become the constituency of the Bangsamoro.

 

No doubt, the working of the 15-member TC should go beyond a mere continuation of the negotiation and haggling between the two parties. Its role is not just to codify in legislative language the comprehensive peace agreement. Rather the TC should act as one body or commission that sees the bigger picture and the common good of the emerging Bangsamoro far beyond the perspectives of the two principals in the negotiation. Otherwise, the production of the Basic Law becomes, yet, another futile exercise in another ‘experiment’ that is doomed to fail.