Bangsamoro Basic Law - Quo Vadis?

What is the next move?  

The Philippine Constitutional Association (Philconsa) study described the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as a “conundrum... littered with constitutional infirmities that would require amending the Constitution”.

The Philconsa’s study is not based on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) but on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that included the 12 signed Agreements between the GPH and the MILF from 1997 to 2014 (the last being the Framework Agreement, the Four Annexes and the Addendum on Territorial Water). 

With the said study, Philconsa Chair Justice Manuel Lazaro said the proposed BBL was unconstitutional and its implementation would require many laws to be enacted.  He further said the Palace had overstepped its powers and usurped the powers of Congress as the Executive branch had no power to bind the Congress and the judicial departments “unless the Executive believes Congress and Supreme Court are its lackeys.”

The Philconsa position is not the only one.  It is but one of the growing positions about the CAB. Perhaps more would be available when the Office of the President (OP) finally submits the draft BBL to Congress.  Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has similar findings. On the other hand, Constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas says that the Constitution is flexible enough to move ahead with the CAB and the OP needs only to fine tune some provisions in the draft BBL and Congress can go ahead and legislate it.

This early, even prior to the submission of the draft BBL to Congress, the passage of the Basic Law may entail a lot of debates, to say the least. At this stage, we do not know how the debates would go. Will it be smooth sailing or rough sailing?  No doubt, the draft Basic Law needs all the champions in both Houses of Congress. But to get these champions, they need to read and study the draft Basic Law.  

At this stage, the objections are speculative because the draft Basic Law has not been made public.  What Philconsa, Sen. Miriam Santiago and Fr. Bernas have studied are the CAB and the Annexes. The ‘legal tender’ of sort is not the CAB or the Annexes but the Basic Law that would be legislated in Congress.  The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) tasked to produce the draft Basic Law has not made public its ‘end result’.

Neither is there an official Journal of the deliberations, Plenary and Committee hearings of the BTC to ascertain some of the ambiguity or grey areas that might arise in the reading of the draft.  The whole process of the BTC is akin to a state secret or a ‘peace negotiation in progress’ when the said BTC is a government body to perform a public and official duty/task that is wholly financed by taxpayers’ money. The least we can expect is public access to the draft and the most is complete transparency, that is, full access to its proceedings and minutes as contained in the official Journal of the BTC.
 

The BTC allegedly submitted the draft Basic Law to the office of the President for Review and “fine tuning” on April 25, 2014.  The OP needs to review the draft before the President can certify it as a priority bill.  

From the looks of it, the public cannot have access to the original draft and the final draft until it is officially submitted to Congress.  

When would it be…? Your guess is as good as mine! 

Many thought that the final draft would be submitted at the resumption of Congress last May 5th. Many have rallied for the passage of the said Basic Law even without reading it.  But there was no submission and the OP seems to be taking a long time in the review that the President himself seems not to have seen it. It is long in coming... meanwhile, we have none to go forward with and is very difficult to join the 'cheering squad' without reading and knowing the draft Basic Law.
 

Neither it is healthy to engage in speculations about the content of the draft Basic Law. It is really premature to speak of constitutionality or non-constitutionality of the BBL. People can study and scrutinize the CAB or the 12 signed documents from 1997 to 2014 ad aeternum yet in the final analysis what truly matters is the BBL that Congress would enact, hopefully, before the year ends.  

The present positioning, study and analysis are all very interesting and they guarantee healthy debates and public hearings. This is ‘democracy’ at work and we should respect and hear these diverse opinions.

Thus I disagree with Philconsa’s study that “the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law may cause chaos and instability with treacherous fallouts instead of bringing peace and prosperity”. Let us then bring all our concerns, doubts, recommendations to both Houses of Congress.  Hopefully, we have open minds in the enactment of the BBL. The BBL is an attempt to legislate peace.  Since it is but an attempt, definitely it would be wanting… But that is okay, the peace process does not end in the signing of the agreement; and neither would it end in the legislation of the agreements.
 

I am hoping to get and read the final draft Basic Law and I would be active in the Public Hearings to be conducted by the Senate and House either as ‘Resource Pearson” or simply a “constituent” of the emerging Bangsamoro. 
 

My real take in the legislation of the BBL, is the fact that I believe that a good BBL may accelerate the needed Charter Change (hopefully in my own life time) that will bring about two basic positions and advocacies of mine - first, a Federal System of Government and second, a parliamentary and unicameral form of Government.

 

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of this website.