Exclude Palawan from BBL Territory, Palawan’s Rep. Abueg Insists

Rep. Frederick F. Abueg has called for the exclusion of Palawan and the City of Puerto Princesa from coverage of the proposed Bangsamoro Entity.

“The people of Palawan vehemently oppose the inclusion of the Province of Palawan and the City of Puerto Princesa in the Bangsamoro Entity,” Abueg, author of House Resolution 2130, stressed.

The House of Representatives is in the midst of open plenary consideration and debate on HB 5811 entitled “An Act providing for the Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, repealing for the purpose R.A. No. 9054, entitled An Act to strengthen and expand the Organic Act of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” and R.A. No. 6734, entitled “An Act providing for an Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” and for other purposes.”

Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law chairman Rufus B. Rodriguez has started taking the cudgels in defending the BBL in plenary following his sponsorship speech last Monday.

Abueg (2nd District, Palawan), through HR 2130, noted that the “recent virtual inclusion of Palawan, particularly in Section 1, Article II in the latest working draft of the BBL adopted by the House of Representatives, merits urgent attention.”

Abueg also reiterated that in the past Committee Meetings of the Ad Hoc panel, he has already been moved and raised the deletion of the phrase “including Palawan” in the definition provision of “Bangsamoro people” in Section 1, Article II of the BBL, originally House Bill 2994.

Furthermore, Abueg noted that in the previous deliberations of the BBL, MILF Peace Panel and Chief Negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, categorically answered our query on the inclusion of Palawan in the Bangsamoro territory, saying, “None in the provisions of the Bangsamoro bill can you see Palawan as included in Bangsamoro.”

Likewise, Abueg added that “Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles assured us of Palawan’s non-inclusion in the Bangsamoro region.

“Considering the recent developments on the BBL, it is surprising when particular provisions, which have already been amended during the previous deliberations, were reflected in the latest working draft of the Bangsamoro bill,” the Palawan lawmaker pointed out.

Abueg reiterated that, “we have done so in the past and we shall do so again, the people of Palawan consistently resist the inclusion of the province in any entity, such as the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), in four successive plebiscites held during the time of then Presidents Marcos, Aquino and Ramos, wherein the negative votes therefrom cast were more than eighty-five percent (85%) of the total voters.”

House of Representatives-Media Relations Service, Public Relations and Information Bureau