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New enabling law based on CAB to replace BBL – Dureza


Presidential peace adviser Jesus "Jess" Dureza on Tuesday said the Duterte administration will pick an all-Moro body to draft a "more inclusive" enabling law to replace the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that failed to pass the 16th Congress.

At a press briefing in Malacañan Palace, Dureza made it clear that the new enabling law will still be based on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

"Iyong BBL hindi ba tapos na 'yon? Dahil nag-adjourn ang Congress and it has not been passed. But we are going to pick up the pieces which were left off from the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro," he said.

The CAB, signed in March 2014, concluded the 17 years of negotiation between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

But the new enabling law will not only cover the CAB, it will also include the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed in 1996 as well as the relevant provisions of the Republic Act 9054 or the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Law and the Indigenous People's Rights Acts (IPRA). 

"The main context of the approach now in the peace negotiations, for example, with the Bangsamoro is already to declare that the time for negotiations are already over," Dureza explained. 

"There will be inclusivity, henceforth, under the Duterte Roadmap for Peace where all the Bangsamoro factions, groups will have to come under one roof so that there will be inclusivity in the implementation of all this particular agreements," he added.

Dureza said the new enabling law will be drafted by a 15-member Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC). Eight of that members will come from the MILF and the rest will be from other Bangsamoro groups.

"The Bangsamoro Transition Commission will do two things: One, to craft an enabling law that they will have to submit. So they will have to work out together the convergence of all their interests, of all these groups. And then, if Congress will pass it, then they will pass it. The other mandate is to propose amendments to the Constitution as originally stated in the mandate of the BTC or the Bangsamoro Transition Commission," Dureza added.

In Makati City, MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal told reporters it was "too premature" to comment on the government's peace roadmap for the Bangsamoro.

"We haven't seen any official statement yet from the government," he said on the sidelines of a book launching on the Mindanao peace process.

Iqbal, however, maintained that the MILF is open to improvements on the previous BBL as long as the bill is compliant to the CAB.

"We are open to improvements and enhancements. We are coming from that position. It has to be a good law," he said.

Dureza said that the new enabling law will hopefully usher federalism to the country. Duterte is an advocate of federalism, which he hopes the country will embrace before his six-year term ends.

"It proceeds as envisioned, the enabling law that will be passed coming from the BTC, from the Bangsamoro themselves, in convergence, can be also a pilot what? Federal state of the Bangsamoro as we move towards a nationwide federal setup later on. As we know very well, setting up the federal system is something that will have to be --- the timeline is a little bit longer," Dureza said. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News

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