By Carmelito Q. Francisco in BusinessWorld Online

DAVAO CITY -- Heads of the peace panels of the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are pushing to uphold the timetable set for the new Bangsamoro region in Mindanao, including the election of the territory’s parliamentary officials alongside the national polls in May 2016.

Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chair of the government panel, said she remains hopeful that Congress will pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) by the first quarter this year as committed by members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

At the same time, Ms. Ferrer acknowledged the concerns raised in the ongoing deliberations and expressed confidence that Congress will pass a “substantive law”.

Ms. Ferrer, speaking during a forum here yesterday, pointed out that the government and the MILF have been doing the preparations for the implementation of the BBL, including the decommissioning of arms of MILF members and setting up the socioeconomic foundation for the areas that will form part of the Bangsamoro.

“We have started rolling out the (mechanisms for the normalization process)... We continue to build on unity and alliances,” she said.

Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator, agreed with his government counterpart saying his group trusts “the collective wisdom of Congress to pass a good law.”

“The MILF has never wavered in believing that the government is going to comply with its end of the deal,” Mr. Iqbal said during the forum.

Meanwhile, a former government negotiator, lawyer Jesus G. Dureza, suggested that the Bangsamoro election be extended to give the MILF more time to “mature into a political entity”.

He expressed support for a transition period longer than one year between the passage of the BBL and the consequent establishment of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to the planned election in 2016.

Members of the House of Representatives have previously said that the Bangsamoro election might have to be postponed to give way to a longer transition period wherein the BTA will take over the existing government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which will form part of the new Bangsamoro territory.

Abdulla Camlian, Bangsamoro Transition Commission member, said that during the negotiations, the MILF actually proposed that the transition period be between six to seven years, but eventually accepted the government’s one-year recommendation.

The government and the MILF signed the peace agreement on March 27 last year.

LAWMAKER CALLS FOR PUBLIC HEARING

In Manila, a lawmaker has called for a public hearing of the Bangsamoro Basic Law this month as a measure to test the constitutionality of the proposed law.

Senator Miriam D. Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes, said on Thursday that she will hold a hearing on Jan. 26 and Feb.2 with the proponents of BBL as well as constitutional experts.

“I would like to hear what the proponents of the Bangsamoro Basic Law will have to say during the hearings. Let’s see if they can change my mind,” Ms. Santiago said in a released statement.

READ: Miriam to hold public hearings on Bangsamoro Basic Law

Representatives of the proponents of the BBL have been invited, including Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Q. Deles, Ms. Ferrer, and Mr. Iqbal. Also invited are constitutional experts including retired Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato Puno and retired SC Justices Adolfo Azcuna and Vicente Mendoza, as well as representatives from the academe.

The senator has stressed that the basis of the BBL is unconstitutional, adding that it violates the principle of constitutional supremacy.

Ms. Santiago said that the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed March 27 last year -- the basis for the BBL -- pushes for a substate instead of a mere autonomous region which will have sovereign powers that should be reserved only for the central government. -- with Alden M. Monzon