CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Tulay Kalinaw Mindanaw (Tulay KaMi or Bridge of Peace in Mindanaw) leaders and other civil society organizations (CSOs) in Mindanao are urging congressmen, especially Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, to extend more liberality in interpreting the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and not be shackled by legalities.
This is after Rodriguez, chairman of the Adhoc Committee on the BBL, said that eight out of the 250 provisions in the BBL should be deleted because these are unconstitutional.
“We will remove these provisions so as to strengthen the BBL so that when it is questioned before the Supreme Court, it will not be declared unconstitutional like what happened with the MOA-AD in 2008,” he said.
Rodriguez said during the April 11 “peace conversation” he had with Tulay KaMi and representatives of other organizations, the Church, academe and other sectors that no less than legal luminaries like former Supreme Court Justice Vicente Mendoza, the deans of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines and San Sebastian, the Philippine Bar Association, all governors of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the Speaker and members of the Assembly of the ARMM were all one in saying that these eight provisions are unconstitutional.
Some of these provisions are those that will create the Bangsamoro versions of the Commission on Audit, Commission on Elections, Ombudsman, Civil Service Commission, and Commission on Human Rights.
He said the 1987 Constitution guarantees these commissions as “Constitutional bodies” that even Congress, the Supreme Court, or even the Office of the President “cannot touch.” Thus, if those pushing for BBL’s passage want that it will not be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, they should agree to the removal of these provisions.
Removing these provisions from the BBL will not water it down but will in fact strengthen it, he added.
But Bibing Mordeno, executive director of Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. (BMFI) which serves as secretariat of Tulay KaMi, asked for more liberality in the interpretation of these provisions since it said in the BBL that the Bangsamoro versions of these “constitutional commissions” are still under the supervision of their national counterparts and not separate bodies.
“It is our moral obligation to journey with the Bangsamoro in the implementation of the BBL.
We believe that this is it,” she said.
A representative of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) also pointed out the BBL is already the “minimum compromise entered into by both peace panels” to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and as such should be passed untouched.
“It is already the minimum of what the Bangsamoro people have been fighting for. Deleting these provisions might make the BBL like other laws — very much lacking in terms of solving the root of the conflict and showing respect to the Moro,” he said.
A pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) said that these eight provisions are part of what the Bangsamoro, particularly the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is fighting for at present — the right to be trusted.
“These eight provisions are the essence of the right to be trusted…Moingon kita nga kini ang babag sa constitutionality sa BBL, pero atong hinumduman nga ang esensiya niini mao ang gipangayo sa Bangsamoro. Ang esensiya nga magdumala sila sa kaugalingon nilang lugar, sa pamolitika. Kung wad-on kini, mao ra lang gihapon nga kita ang gakapot kanila; mao ra lang gihapon ta og gahikot ta sa ilang liog ug ato silang gipatuyok-tuyok bisan asa. Lisud ni nga atong walaon,” he said.
For his part, Tulay KaMi lead convenor Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ, DD, said that these provisions “can be interpreted in a different way.”
“In the present BBL, there is also that respect for the Constitutional bodies and in fact there is a middle ground,” he said.
Ledesma also pointed out that even the surviving framers of the Constitution “said they have not seen anything objectionable to the BBL and that it adheres to the core spirit of the Constitution, which is social justice.”
“The draft BBL represents the reasonable, practicable, and carefully crafted formula for attaining a just and lasting peace in Mindanao,” he stressed. (Bong D. Fabe)