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Senate gives Marcos until Aug. 10 to submit BBL substitute bill


The Senate on Monday gave Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr until next week to submit his substitute bill for the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which was supposed to be given this week.

“We have agreed that the BBL report will be filed on August 10,” Senate President Franklin Drilon told reporters after their caucus, adding bill will be sponsored on August 11.

To give the senators time to carefully study all the proposals, Drilon said they decided to start the interpellation on August 17.

“That’s the schedule of the BBL. We will not set any deadline on the interpellation, so everybody will be given a chance to review the report that will be submitted,” he said.

The BBL is the embodiment of the peace negotiations and agreements between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front after the two parties signed a peace agreement last year. It seeks the creation of a political entity that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In an interview with reporters earlier in the day, Marcos admitted that he expects to finish the bill later this week.

“I had hoped to finish it by today but maraming nag-submit ng panibagong position.  We tried to incorporate as much of it as possible para lang mabigyan ang mga senador ng as many options as possible dun sa amendments,” he said.

He added that some of the contentious part of the BBL are on monetary policy and power sharing.

“Akala ko talaga matatapos, pero nung napunta naman kami dun sa power-sharing and economic provision and the transitory phase, medyo mahirap kasi karamihan doon ay bago. You’re designing the whole thing,” he said. —KBK, GMA News

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