Don’t press Congress on BBL, prelate tells Palace
A CATHOLIC Church official yesterday urged Malacañang not to pressure Congress into hastily passing the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
In an interview with reporters, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo also called on the members of the House of Representatives to study the BBL carefully.
“The passage of the BBL should not be rushed. It should be studied carefully for the common good of all stakeholders,” said Pabillo, who is also the chair of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)-Permanent Committee on Public Affairs.
Malacañang has said it remains hopeful the BBL will be passed before Congress adjourns on June 11. The measure, once approved, would establish a new autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao, ending a decades-long conflict on the impoverished island.
“Why rush just to pass it by June if they are really serious in pursuing peace? Peace will never come merely because of a piece of paper. It might even be complicated. All groups concerned should be given the opportunity to be heard because this is a concern not only of Mindanao but of the entire country,” Pabillo said.
“The measure should be improved to ensure that it will be just for all. Let’s look for the real solution to our problem, one that will be good for the whole country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo said the draft BBL could not ensure peace, but it could be an “alternative” for all groups tired of war in Mindanao
Quevedo said the BBL would not end all armed conflicts in Mindanao because “rido” or clan wars would continue and small groups would go on fighting for secession.
“But the BBL is the alternative for the greatest majority of the Bangsamoro and for our own military and security forces who are tired of war,” Quevedo said in an article posted on the CBCP News website.
“It is the alternative to radicalization and extremism now spreading [through] Southeast Asia and creeping to our shores,” he said.
Quevedo said the fate of the BBL was in the hands of the lawmakers whose legislative role should be “eminently one of peacemaking.”
The legislators, he said, have two options: Ignore the 17 years of peacemaking by emasculating the BBL or strengthen the proposed autonomy law.
“To approve a BBL that is less than the Organic Act for the [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao] and falls short of self-de- termination as liberally granted by the Constitution is to perpetuate social injustice and human underdevelopment,” he said.
“To approve a BBL, strengthened by leg- islative wisdom, and preserving substantively the letter and spirit of the proposed BBL leads to social justice, peace and human development,” Quevedo added.