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MANILA, Philippines -- Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. stood by his assertion on the need for a substitute bill to the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, saying the version of the measure supposedly drafted by Malacanang could lead to the country’s disintegration.
“The present draft of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law given by Malacañang contains portions that might dismember the Filipinos as a nation,” Marcos, chair of the Senate committee on local goverment, said following Wednesday’s public hearing on the BBL.
At the hearing, Koronadal City Mayor Peter B. Miguel, voiced his opposition to the inclusion of his city, South Cotabato and the whole of Region 12 in the Bangsamoro autonomous region, saying it would lead to disintegration.
“Despite our cultural and religious differences, it should not be a ground for our disintegration,” Miguel said, a concern that Marcos agreed with.
Marcos and Miguel were apparently referring to the so-called “opt-in” provision that the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee that deliberated the proposed BBL reinstated into the draft measure that it approved and which is now undergoing plenary debates in the chamber.
The provision allows any areas outside the Bangsamoro but contiguous to any of its components or to areas identified in the 1976 Tripoli agreement between the government and Moro National Liberation Front to seek inclusion through a plebiscite in the fifth and 10th years after the BBL is enacted.
After the Wednesday hearing, Marcos delivered a privilege speech saying he could not support the Malacañang-drafted BBL, which he said would lead to more bloodshed intead of peace, and batting for a substitute bill.
“Unfortunately, the BBL in its present form and substance will not bring us any closer to peace. Instead, it will lead us to perdition,” Marcos said. “Armed conflict will ensue. Blood will be shed. And when blood is shed, it will not distinguish between right and wrong; between young and old, neither between men and women, nor soldiers or rebels, combatants and civilians, rich, poor, Muslims, Christians. Nobody wins. Everybody loses.”
“I am for peace. I share our people’s thirst for peace. Pero napakarami pong mga masamang probisyon na napapaloob sa BBL at kung tatanggalin ko pong isa-isa, baka maski kahit anong retoke ang gawin,hindi makayang maibalik sa dating anyo ang BBL (But there are so many bad provisions in the BBL and if I remove these one by one, whatever amendments we make will never restore the original version of the BBL),” he said.