The chair of the government implementing panel for the Bangsamoro Peace Accords revealed that the Bangsamoro Transmission Commission (BTC) has unanimously approved the final draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) on Tuesday, June 6.
Irene Santiago, chair of the Government Implementing Panel for the GPH-MILF said that the draft is now with the styling committee, after which it will be submitted to President Duterte before June 15.
It is expected to be discussed in the President’s State of the Nation Address in July.
“We hope that when Congress resumes on July 24, that this is going to be submitted either on the 24th or 25th [of June],” said Santiago. “We are hoping and planning that the president will mention it on the SONA and recommends it a priority bill for Congress to pass.”
According to Santiago, the new BBL is a new and better version of the first as it included provisions that are not in the first draft, like the process of the passage of laws and their ratification and was made to be in line with the interests of both the Bangsamoro and non-Bangsamoro communities.
In February this year, the BTC composed of 21 members with 11 members from the Moro-Islamic Liberation Front and 10 from the GPH BTC was formed to draft the BBL in accordance with the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) for the creation of the Bangsamoro, a new political entity to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) comprised of the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and Marawi and Lamitan.
