ARMM Leaders Welcome Passage of BBL at Committee Level

Cotabato City (PNA) — Local leaders in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have welcomed the approval of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) at the House committee level, describing it a step closer to the attainment of peace in Mindanao.

The 75-member House committee, chaired by Cagayan Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, has approved House Bill 4994 on Wednesday afternoon.

The bill is expected to be discussed in the plenary of the House next week. It aims to create a new political entity in Muslim Mindanao region in accordance with the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

Among those who lauded the House move was Maguindanao and Cotabato City Rep. Sandra Sema, who is identified with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

She is the wife of Chairman Muslimin Sema, leader of a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front which signed a final peace deal with government on Sept. 2, 1996.

She thanked her colleagues in the AdHoc Committee who voted in favor of the draft BBL.

“By voting in favor of the draft BBL, me and my colleagues restored hope among people in the Moro homeland and bolstered their conviction that they can live in peace together, regardless of religion, cultural identities and ethnic divides,” Sema said in a statement.

“We will continuously initiate peaceful actions intended to show to all members of the House of Representatives and the Senate our being one in heart, one community for BBL,” ARMM Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman said in a statement hours after the draft law was approved.

“Thank you for speaking for peace for the Bangsamoro,” said Hataman on Wednesday afternoon after the committee approved the BBL. “We are almost there. Yes, there were amendments, but we hope that these changes will make for a better Bangsamoro Basic Law.”

he said ARMM officials and employees will hold ecumenical prayer every Monday morning at the ARMM compound as the draft law continues its journey in the Senate and House of Representatives.

“We thank the members of the ad hoc committee for their proposed amendments. This is a great step towards the goal of achieving a lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao. This is a great step towards self-determination that we have long been fighting for,” he said.

Hataman stressed that BBL is not only a product of many learned Moro and non-Moro legal minds as they consulted with those who will live under it, but also of the great Moro people who never gave up on their dream of self-rule.

“The BBL – much debated upon, reviled by some, discussed heatedly even by those who have not even read it – is this much closer to becoming the law by which we Moros will build the foundations of peace, security and progress,” sadi Hataman whose wife AnakMindanao Partylist Rep. Djalia Hataman was member of the AdHoc Committee.

The governor also underscored the region’s readiness to take on the challenge of transition.

“We have been preparing for it for more than three years,” he said. “Everything that we have done in the working ARMM government has been for the benefit of the Bangsamoro.”

But the battle for the passage of the BBL is not yet over and this opens an opportunity for the BBL to be more understood, he said.

“We’re expecting there may be more discussions, and debates, perhaps even more amendments,” he said.

“We welcome these, because it is through discussion and debate that the BBL can be more widely known and understood. As the discussion is raised in the upper house, we renew our hope that more of our leaders can realize how much we need the BBL.We urge our lawmakers in the Senate to take their cue from the Lower House, and take the BBL into the homestretch,” he said.

“This is a race of hope, a race for peace. When the finish line is crossed, we, not just the Bangsamoro but the entire country, will all be winners,” Hataman said.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said he was optimistic the Rodriguez-led committee’s approval of the draft BBL will usher in improvements in ARMM’s investment climate.

“Even if it’s quite a long way still, the blessing for the BBL coming from the committee assigned to work on its passage already sent good signals to our friends in the business communities abroad,” Mangudadatu said in a statement released Thursday.

He added he was convinced the Senate will favorably act on the BBL just the same. (PNA) FPV/NYP/EOF