Business sector left out in drafting of BBL
Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. yesterday scored the government peace panel for leaving out the business community from discussions in drafting the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
Marcos lamented that not only did the peace panel not include the major stakeholders in the peace process, they failed to get the inputs of the various business groups that would be affected in the event of the approval of a Bangsamoro region.
The senator said there was no serious study on the possible impact of the BBL on the country’s business and economy. The economic impact of the BBL, he said, is a “very serious concern.”
The business and economic aspect of the BBL, he said, has yet to be discussed in the hearing of the Senate Committee on Local Government, the panel in-charge of tackling the controversial proposal and which he chairs.
“Sadly, not even our government panel was able to convincingly show that this point had been thoroughly discussed and analyzed when they prepared the draft of the BBL with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front),” Marcos told members of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao City.
The business group had invited him over to Davao City to discuss their concerns over the BBL.
To address this concern, Marcos said he will invite the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Finance (DOF), the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR), Customs, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA), and other concerned private sector groups like the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), to attend the panel’s next hearing on June 2.
Marcos noted the proposed law could provide the Bangsamoro government powers broader than those the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) now wields.
“(It is) capable of influencing market behavior in the affected communities, and can dictate the pace and sway of the economy,” he warned.
Apart from administrative and security concerns, the draft law grants the Bangsamoro government powers of taxation; regulation of trade, industry, and investment and regulation of business; labor and employment; regulation of local power generation, distribution and transmission; agriculture and food security; land management and housing; regulation of public utilities and regulation of the financial and banking system, among others.
Yet, it is still unclear if the government peace panel has been able to assess, among others, the impact of possible labor diaspora as a result of a change in market behavior, as well as a study on the capacity of adjacent local government units (LGUs) to absorb the changes in Mindanao market or even the business and credit implications of Islamic finance and banking in the affected areas.
“Moreover, what ramifications are expected of Mindanao’s energy supply in the event that Lake Lanao, which provides for the electricity of a substantial part of Mindanao and which is presently under the control of the National Power Corporation (NPC), is constituted as “Bangsamoro waters,” Marcos pointed out.
“This puts the lake and all its energy assets under the jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro government. Are these energy sources lost now to the national grid?” he asked.
The government, he said, has to make clear its development policy for the proposed Bangsamoro government, particularly in the areas of foreign direct investments (FDIs) and mining, laborm and tax.
“What is the development policy of the Bangsamoro government? What of the huge amounts given as block grants from the national government. How will it be appropriated? Other countries have pledged funding in the form of foreign direct investments. How do we ensure the proper handling of these funds? What is the mining policy?” he pointed out.
He clarified, though, he is not questioning the capacity of the Bangsamoro for self-governance but said he could not help but think of these scenarios in the BBL-related deliberations.
“At any rate, the main point that I am driving at is that government should at least have studied these possible scenarios and duly presented their findings to the public, reasonably prior to subjecting them to the routine process of a plebiscite,” Marcos said.