Ex-solon warns of more ‘Mamasapanos’ if BBL passage is delayed

Bloody incidents similar to the January 25 Mamasapano clash are likely to happen again if Congress delays the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, a member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission said Monday.

During a forum at the Ateneo de Manila Law School in Makati City, lawyer Jose Luis Martin “Chito” Gascon, a former lawmaker and the youngest member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission, said there is a need for transparency, truth, and justice following the Mamasapano incident, where 44 elite policemen were killed in an encounter with Moro guerillas.

Gascon said both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which lost 18 men in the encounter, have hard questions to answer.

“Ultimately, those issues need to be ventilated and addressed,” he said, adding it is wrong to cite the Mamasapano incident as reason to delay the passage of the proposed BBL.

“From a political standpoint, it may be hard sell to push for BBL today or tomorrow or next week,” Gascon said. “But to indefinitely postpone it, what would be the result of that? You will have more situations like what happened in Mamasapano on January 25.”

The forum was organized by the Regional Human Rights Commission of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Ateneo Human Rights Center, headed by lawyer Ray Paolo Santiago. The topic was “Institutionalizing Human Rights Promotion and Protection in the Bangsamoro Basic Law.”

On February 8, a panel that the House of Representatives created to tackle the BBL suspended its deliberations on the proposed law until its members have evaluated the results on investigations into the Mamasapano incident.

Not the first

Gascon said what happened in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, last January 25 was not the first incident of its nature. Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Ann “Etta” Rosales, also a speaker at the forum, cited an incident that she claimed was the “reverse” of what happened in Mamasapano.

While the public reacted strongly to the killing of the policemen, all members of the police Special Action Force, Rosales described a video, reportedly shown to Congress last year, showing how one MILF rebel was brutally killed by government troops.

Gascon said the Mamasapano incident “provides an understanding the real situation on the ground” in conflict-ridden Mindanao.

He added that the “Bangsamoro proposal is the result of 17 years of painstaking preparation,” referring to the on-and-off peace negotiations between the government and the MILF that ended with a peace agreement in March last year.

Last year, the government and the MILF created a transitional commission as part of the landmark Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

Importance of BBL

Lawyer Raissa Jajurie, a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, said many people think the Bangsamoro law is only for Muslims when it is actually for all Filipinos.

She said there was a need for a BBL because the Bangsamoro area was “geographically and culturally isolated” from the rest of the country.

Explaining that a universal formula will not always work for all situations, she said a special law is needed to address issues in the conflict-torn area of Bangsamoro.

The current ARMM comprises Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Under the proposed BBL, the new Bangsamoro autonomous region will also include: (1) the cities of Cotabato and Isabela, (2) six Lanao del Norte that voted to become part of the ARMM in a plebiscite in 2001 (Baloi, Munai, Pantar, Nunungan, Tagoloan and Tangcal), and 39 villages in North Cotabato also opted to join the ARMM in 2001.

Constitutional

During the forum, Gascon also reiterated his earlier statement that the BBL was not unconstitutional as a former lawmaker recently claimed.

Gascon, board member of the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board, said he does not agree with the statement of former House deputy speaker Pablo Garcia that the BBL was “palpably and incorrigibly unconstitutional.”

Garcia claims that BBL will create a territorial or political subdivision. However, Gascon said it was “utter foolishness” to claim that BBL was unconstitutional since the proposed law recognizes the territorial integrity of the country.

Gascon said the Bangsamoro territory will still be part of Philippine territory.

He said the people of Bangsamoro, who have suffered so much due to decades of conflict in their area, deserve to have a law created especially for them. “They deserve an opportunity for life,” he said.

Need for a Bangsamoro CHR

Meanwhile, Jajurie also raised the need for a separate Commission on Human Rights for the Bangsamoro because a high number of human rights violations are committed in the area.

Lawyer Algamar Latiph, chairperson of the Regional Human Rights Commission of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RHRC-ARMM), said under the proposed BBL, the provision to have a Bangsamoro CHR was removed.

The BBL—House Bill No. 4994 and Senate Bill 2408— specified the creation of a Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission (BHRC), which was expected to replace the existing RHRC chaired by Latiph.

However, this provision, under Article 9 Section 7 of HB 4994, was removed before the deliberations on the BBL was indefinitely postponed.

Latiph stressed that the creation of a Bangsamoro CHR was crucial in promoting human rights in the area, especially when it comes to educating people about the country’s Bill of Rights.

Jajurie said the Bangsamoro CHR will not negate the power of the CHR chaired by Rosales but will instead complement the national agency.

Rosales herself highlighted the need for the Bangsamoro CHR, citing situations in other countries that have several commissions on human rights.

Rosales said hundreds of human rights violations are committed across the country and the CHR needs all the help it can get in addressing these violations.

She said resolving human rights issues was a crucial part of the healing process in conflict-torn areas like Mindanao.

Gascon noted that in addressing human rights issues, a quick and timely response is needed to protect the victims.

An advantage of having a Bangsamoro CHR is the geographical nearness of the agency to the people that will need its services, he said.  —KBK, GMA News