Caucus held to address MILF concern on wordings of Bangsamoro bill
The deliberation on the proposed Organic Law for the Bangsamoro was suspended for few hours on Tuesday after the Moro Islamic Liberation Front raised some concerns about certain wordings on the draft.
The committee, which was deliberating on the bill at Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City had to hold a closed door meeting with the leaders of the MILF to address their concerns, such as the repetition of "national laws" on the powers of the Bangsamoro Government and on the "formulation" of the preamble.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, in an interview with the reporters after the caucus, said they have agreed to remove the national laws on Section 2, Article 5 of the Powers of the Government as requested by the MILF.
Based on the draft, such provision should be read as "Within its territorial jurisdiction and subject to the provisions of the Constitution and this Organic Law."
"So it's a simple amendment and both sides agreed except that particular deletion. We stick to the draft that was prepared last week and that was the advice of the subcommittee," Zubiri said.
As to the Preamble, a source said the MILF had opposed the changes on the wordings.
The MILF wanted to retain the Preamble wordings to "We the Bangsamoro people and other inhabitants do hereby promulgate...", and not to change it to "We, the Filipino people cognizant of the rights...," the source said.
After the caucus, Ghadzali Jaafar, head of the MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which initially drafted the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, said, "We're satisfied 100 percent."
As of press time, the bicameral conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives was still deliberating on the proposed measure.
Zubiri expressed hope they could finally finish the reconciled version by Tuesday night or Wednesday in time for President Rodrigo Duterte's signing of the bill into law before his State of the Nation Address on July 23. Celerina Monte/DMS
