A NEW era is set to dawn on Muslim Mindanao with the impending approval of the basic law creating the Bangsamoro autonomous region, after years of false starts and legal setbacks.
There is ample reason to be confident that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will hurdle challenges, legal or otherwise, and not go the way of its predecessor, the Arroyo-era Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain or MoA-AD.
The MoA-AD, which sought to establish a “Bangsamoro Juridical Entity” without going through Congress, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2008.
This time, the BBL is shaping up to be the product of legislative-executive consensus, with the concurrence of the Bangsamoro Transition Council led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal with the Aquino administration in 2014.
By going through the legislative mill, the BBL promises to be more effective in addressing the roots of the Moro conflict and achieving peace in Mindanao through greater self-rule, compared with the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The national government will yield 60 specific powers to the Bangsamoro region, including the setting up of shariah circuit, district, and high courts that will have jurisdiction on personal, family and property cases as well as minor criminal offenses.
This will make the Bangsamoro region more potent than the existing ARMM, a failed exercise in autonomy because its umbilical cord remained attached to the national government.
The Bangsamoro region will also have enough means to develop its economy, with its powers of taxation and block grants of P60 billion to P70 billion from the national government.
This will be on top of the internal revenue allotment, or the share of national tax collections, received annually by provinces, cities, municipalities and villages.
The BBL is already in the final stages of bicameral deliberations, after Malacañang intervened to break a deadlock over the measure’s territorial provisions last week.
The MILF is to be commended for agreeing to the provision in which six Lanao del Norte municipalities and 39 villages in North Cotabato will be incorporated into the Bangsamoro region if voters in their “mother units” or provinces approve it in a referendum.
This is a significant concession as it could reduce the Bangsamoro territory. There are questions on the legality of the inclusion of the six towns and 39 villages in the ARMM, which, following legal precedent, would be settled by province-wide plebiscites.
Another significant concession is the provision prohibiting the Bangsamoro government from procuring firearms, ammunition and explosives under its annual appropriations law.
The MILF’s patience throughout the entire process is admirable. It could have bailed at any point given the tediousness of the legislative process, but instead made it an opportunity to affirm its commitment to peace and willingness to abandon violent struggle.
President Rodrigo Duterte is also to be commended for sticking to his promise to “shepherd” the BBL to passage, as shown by last week’s Palace intervention.
The formal signing of the BBL into law will be historic as it begins the process of correcting centuries of injustice to the Moro people. Filipinos will look back to this period in the nation’s history in which democratic processes and institutions prevailed over decades of fighting.
There is ample reason to be confident that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will hurdle challenges, legal or otherwise, and not go the way of its predecessor, the Arroyo-era Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain or MoA-AD.
The MoA-AD, which sought to establish a “Bangsamoro Juridical Entity” without going through Congress, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2008.
This time, the BBL is shaping up to be the product of legislative-executive consensus, with the concurrence of the Bangsamoro Transition Council led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal with the Aquino administration in 2014.
By going through the legislative mill, the BBL promises to be more effective in addressing the roots of the Moro conflict and achieving peace in Mindanao through greater self-rule, compared with the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The national government will yield 60 specific powers to the Bangsamoro region, including the setting up of shariah circuit, district, and high courts that will have jurisdiction on personal, family and property cases as well as minor criminal offenses.
This will make the Bangsamoro region more potent than the existing ARMM, a failed exercise in autonomy because its umbilical cord remained attached to the national government.
The Bangsamoro region will also have enough means to develop its economy, with its powers of taxation and block grants of P60 billion to P70 billion from the national government.
This will be on top of the internal revenue allotment, or the share of national tax collections, received annually by provinces, cities, municipalities and villages.
The BBL is already in the final stages of bicameral deliberations, after Malacañang intervened to break a deadlock over the measure’s territorial provisions last week.
The MILF is to be commended for agreeing to the provision in which six Lanao del Norte municipalities and 39 villages in North Cotabato will be incorporated into the Bangsamoro region if voters in their “mother units” or provinces approve it in a referendum.
This is a significant concession as it could reduce the Bangsamoro territory. There are questions on the legality of the inclusion of the six towns and 39 villages in the ARMM, which, following legal precedent, would be settled by province-wide plebiscites.
Another significant concession is the provision prohibiting the Bangsamoro government from procuring firearms, ammunition and explosives under its annual appropriations law.
The MILF’s patience throughout the entire process is admirable. It could have bailed at any point given the tediousness of the legislative process, but instead made it an opportunity to affirm its commitment to peace and willingness to abandon violent struggle.
President Rodrigo Duterte is also to be commended for sticking to his promise to “shepherd” the BBL to passage, as shown by last week’s Palace intervention.
The formal signing of the BBL into law will be historic as it begins the process of correcting centuries of injustice to the Moro people. Filipinos will look back to this period in the nation’s history in which democratic processes and institutions prevailed over decades of fighting.
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