BBL may be signed next week

Senators and congressmen deliberating as a bicameral conference committee may finally resolve this week conflicting provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and have the peace measure ratified before President Duterte signs it into law next week.

Bicam Senate panel chairman Juan Miguel Zubiri is

confident that tomorrow’s resumption of session will be a fruitful one as their counterparts from the House of Representatives, along with the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, will finally come up with a win-win solution.

“Sometimes, what we want is not exactly constitutional,” the Senate majority leader, who hails from Mindanao and comes from a political clan in Bukidnon, said as he acknowledged the big steps the bicam has taken in deliberating contentious provisions in the BBL.

“There are a few deadlocks that we’re just finishing up,” Zubiri said, noting that only two more issues – Articles 17 and 18, or those involving territory and plebiscite – remain on the table, since he sees no problem with the 13 sections that have been deliberated upon.

House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Zubiri’s counterpart in the lower legislative chamber, said they can submit the BBL for Duterte’s consideration this week. Once approved, Congress can have it ratified on July 23 when they resume session.

This will be in time for Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address.

Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu welcomed the imminent approval of the BBL to address the peace and order problem in Mindanao.

“This landmark legislation will surely bring developments in Mindanao as it offers solution to the peace and order concern there,” he said.

Another administration lawmaker, Rep. Winston Castelo of Quezon City, welcomed the BBL.

He said the impetus of the bicameral conference committee to finish the BBL is the 88-percent approval and 87-percent trust ratings of Duterte, as per the results showed by the recent Pulse Asia survey.

“Aside from the BBL, the House and the Senate are also faced with the more complicated task of clearing the way for the shift to a federal government that is expected to occupy the legislative agenda for the next Congress,” Castelo said.

The chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development said the BBL would help the Chief Executive in resolving the apparent never-ending and decades-old peace problem in conflictridden Mindanao, which is a priority of the administration.