The Bicameral Conference Committee of Congress should restore essential provisions stricken off the Bangsamoro Basic Law by lawmakers, a broad-based coalition of Bangsamoro civil society organizations said.
On Sunday, the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society Organizations has conducted a series of consultations with varying sectors of peace stakeholders for a tri-peoples alliance to call on Congress to restore provisions either deleted or were toned-down.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo of the United Nations Development Program field unit in Mindanao said that if the government succeeds in changing the 1987 Constitution, there have to be changed also on the BBL.
But the Senate version deleted the provision of the BBL on the conduct of periodic plebiscite every five years for possible changes in the law in the next 25 years.
Sammy Maulana, CBCSO secretary general, said a manifesto for the cause in Congress would be the least that they would want to come up with, aside from rallies before members of Congress meet for the Bicameral Committee Conference in mid-July to pass the substitute BBL into law.
Sinarimbo said Section 11 Article XII of the BBL reduces to only 50-50 the sharing of tax revenues, fees and charges collected in the Bangsamoro, whereas the original BBL provision based on the CAB is 75-25 in favor of the Bangsamoro.
He said the current provision in the ARMM law is 70-30 in favor of ARMM. “In fine, the sharing has been reduced to below that of the current sharing in ARMM,” Sinarimbo said.
A message sent to the Manila Standard said the MILF leadership was also up for a broad-based consultation with the Bangsamoro on whether (or not) to accept the substitute BBL Bills as would be passed by Congress,” particularly the Senate version.
Sinarimbo said on resources-sharing in exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources, the Senate version provides for 50-50 sharing on all mines and minerals including fossil fuels in Section 35 Article Xll of Senate Bill 1717.
“The House version retained the sharing percentage as proposed by BTC, subject to the limitation provided in the Constitution. The current sharing in the ARMM is 100 percent for all mines and minerals and 50-50 for strategic minerals. ARMM law provides for a bigger share,” Sinarimbo noted.
Sinarimbo said more than the apprehension of some officials on a Bangsamoro territorial expansion, the BBL should be updated and revalidated in a new Charter, after it shall have been ratified in a plebiscite conducted under the mandates of an old Constitution.
Moreover, provisions deemed unconstitutional in the old Charter may pass legislative scrutiny for amendments under a new Constitution, he said.
But the amendments introduced by Liberal Party Senator Franklin Drilon, and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto locked this possibility by striking the provision off the substitute BBL Bill.
Lawyer Raisa Jajurie of the CBCS said the Senate version also deleted the exclusive power provisions of the BBL on power-sharing and natural resources. In the House version, the provisions on natural resources have been moved to concurrent.
“Natural resources and ancestral domain are powers already granted to the ARMM by the 1987 Constitution itself under Article X section,” Sinarimbo added.