President Benigno Aquino III does not have any more bills to certify as urgent before he steps down on June 30, Malacañang said on Sunday.
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said that most of the significant measures are already lined up for third reading.
“We may not have the time to finish floor deliberations on those that will be brought to the floor for the first time,” Coloma said, quoting a statement from Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Bernardito Sayo.
Among those the Aquino administration is pushing for is the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
The incoming 17th Congress will not tackle the controversial BBL, which outgoing lawmakers have tried but failed to pass, Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez said.
Alvarez, who is the top choice for the position of House Speaker under the incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, said the BBL would be subsumed by the planned shift to the federal form of government that the Duterte administration would prioritize.
Alvarez said the BBL would give way to federalism “because they are the same concept.”
“While waiting for federalism, the Duterte administration can fully implement the Tripoli Agreement,” he said.
The Tripoli accord led to the establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“They can manage their own natural resources and economy,” he said.
The draft BBL is the product of peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF.
Alvarez accused the Aquino administration of “taking the MILF for a ride” because it agreed to certain provisions in the draft BBL that “were unconstitutional.”
The bloody encounter in January 2015 between commandos of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force and Muslim guerrillas mostly belonging to the MILF stalled congressional consideration of the proposed BBL.
However, the MILF looked at Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who chairs the Senate committee on local government, for the failure of Congress to pass the measure.
The MILF claimed that Marcos did not have the time for the draft BBL in the latter part of 2015.
Marcos denies the accusation, tossing the blame on the administration and its allies in the House of Representatives.
In his comment regarding Alvarez’s statement that the draft BBL would be shelved, reelected ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said it does not augur well for peace in Mindanao.
“It sends the wrong message to the MILF and those of us who want to resolve the decades-old conflict in Mindanao so that peace and development could finally be attained,” he said.
He said party-list group Anak Mindanao, which his wife heads and which has won two seats in the House, will re-file the proposed BBL at the start of the next Congress.
Hataman also foresees a problem with ARMM under a federal system if regions or states would be entirely autonomous and would be required to generate their own finances.
He said the Muslim region would receive this year about P30 billion in subsidy from the national government.
best form.”