Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday declared the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law is dead. “It will never be resurrected under the administration of President Noynoy Aquino,” he added.
At a news conference, Marcos as chair of the Senate local government committee stressed that BBL has been dead for a long time since the House of Representatives did not want it.
But Malacañang is not about to give up on the BBL, pressing the lawmakers to “rise to the challenge and seize the historic opportunity to enact the BBL.’’
Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Quintos Deles said that President Aquino has stressed that the peace in the Bangsamoro is not an issue of his personal legacy and it is not just for the Bangsamoro but will bring benefits to the entire country.
Asked if the House of Representatives killed BBL, Marcos said: “They don’t like it.”
“No matter how we forced it, they don’t want the BBL,” stressed Marcos whose committee conducted hearings on the proposed BBL that intended to bring lasting peace in Mindanao.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said if House members were asked to vote on the BBL this time, it would definitely be defeated.
While he had come out with the substitute bill, which was undergoing deliberation in the Senate, Marcos said the senators are still on page 4, and “there were a hundred pages.”
Marcos also pointed out the issue raised by Enrile that a bill of local application like the BBL should have come first from the House.
“So even if we reach the point of voting, we still need to study if we still have to wait the House’s version,” he said.
He doubted if the House of Representatives and the Senate could still muster a quorum when Congress resumes its “short” sessions in January since many of the lawmakers might already start campaigning for the 2016 elections.
Aside from lack of quorum, Marcos said there is also a “very strong objection” from some congressmen on the version that they are deliberating.
“We already lack the material time. We ran out of time,” said Marcos. He hopes the next administration under the 17th Congress would adopt their unfinished task.
“I hope they would continue what we had started in the Senate,” said Marcos who said there was a waste of time and so much efforts that it did not pass under the 16th Congress.
He believes the failure to pass the BBL would have a negative impact on his vice presidential bid. “I hope they know that we did our best to come up with a law that will be beneficial to all the people in Mindanao.”
Since the BBL came to his committee last September last year, they never stopped working on it.