Ferrer to Congress: Let BBL be your legacy

MANILA, Philippines - Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives should pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) for future generations, government peace panel chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said yesterday.

“I appeal to the members of Congress and Senate: let this be your legacy,” she said during a forum yesterday at the University of the Philippines.

“I hope that they can see its value,” she said in Filipino. “If we wait for the next Congress, we would have wasted the 36 public committee hearings that have already been conducted.”

Ferrer said there is good indication that legislators are now looking into resuming the hearings on the proposed law by April even if Congress is on break.

“I hope that we will have a much, much better atmosphere to continue and persevere and move ahead with the different aspects of this agreement,” she said.

Ferrer said they are trying to recover lost ground following the Mamasapano clash.

“We are conducting information campaigns that we hope would help us recover lost ground,” she said.

Despite setbacks from the Mamasapano incident, the  government peace panel and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are confident of seeing the BBL passed by Congress before the end of President Aquino’s term in 2016.

“We’re still up and standing. We’re pursuing and persevering (to push for the passage of the BBL),” Ferrer said.

“It’s not over yet. We still have a good chance,” she added.

Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF peace panel, echoed the sentiments of Ferrer, saying they are doing everything they can to convince lawmakers of the need to approve the BBL.

“The BBL is battered but not yet down,” Iqbal said. “I think there is still hope… There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Iqbal noted that the MILF can exert influence in only one of two aspects in the entire peace process – political and legal.

He said the political aspect, which ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 27, 2014, involves both the government and the MILF.

“But the legal process, it’s the government’s responsibility. The MILF has no responsibility in the legal process,” he said.

The legal process, according to Iqbal, started with the drafting of the BBL by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission. And while he co-chaired the commission, the MILF negotiator said the group is still under the Office of the President.

Iqbal noted that Malacañang returned to the commission the draft law with comments on at least 60 percent of its contents.

He also revealed that President Aquino and MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim had to discuss seven contentious issues in the draft bill before it was transmitted to Congress.