(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Philippine President Benigno Aquino will submit the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law bill to Congress on Wednesday.
Senate sources told The Star that the submission of the draft bill will be held in a ceremony in Malacañang to be attended by Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr, together with other leaders of both houses of Congress.
It could not be confirmed, however, whether representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as well as the government negotiating panel led by professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer will be attending the ceremony.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr would not confirm the Wednesday submission, and said yesterday that the only thing he knows is that the measure will be submitted to Congress before Aquino leaves for Europe on September 13.
"The draft BBL is now undergoing final stages of refinement," Coloma quoted Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Deles as saying. "By the estimate of Moro Islamic Liberation Front panel and Bangsamoro Transition Commission chair Mohagher Iqbal, the draft bill is now 99.99 percent done," Deles said in a statement.
According to Deles, the draft BBL "was completed almost two weeks ago" by Aquino. "On the basis of the President's comments, there were further discussion and exchange of notes between MILF and the Office of the President, the results of which were also submitted to the President," she said.
The government negotiating panel and the Milf camp failed to meet their target to submit the draft priority measure to Congress on the last week of August. Milf chief negotiator Iqbal signed the cover letter of the draft bill, addressed to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr, when they submitted the measure to President Aquino.
The Bangsamoro Basic Law will embody the comprehensive peace agreement signed last March by the MILF and the government, aiming to end the decades-long armed conflict in Mindanao. The bill seeks to create a new Bangsamoro political entity that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The measure is expected to stipulate power-sharing and wealth-sharing arrangements between the national government and the new political entity. Once the Bangsamoro Basic Law is passed and signed into law by Aquino, a plebiscite will be conducted in the envisioned core territory of the Bangsamoro to ratify the new government that will replace the ARMM by 2016.
Polls for a Bangsamoro Political Entity will be held alongside the May 2016 presidential and local elections. The crafting of the Bangsamoro bill was stalled for months after Aquino's legal team supposedly made changes to the draft submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.
Iqbal even earlier said that his camp's peace negotiators will "lose face" if they accept the proposed law with the revisions made by the President's lawyers.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.