‘Counsel of constitutional experts, not rebel leaders, needed in crafting Bangsamoro basic law’
- Details
By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz in Business Mirror
The House of Representatives should invite the country’s leading constitutional experts and the best and brightest legal minds, not only fugitive rebel leaders, as resource persons to help guide the Congress in the discussions and hearings of the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), a lawmaker said on Thursday.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela said Congress should ensure that the enabling law for controversial peace agreement will strictly adhere to and conform to the Constitution.
Albano, who belongs to the minority bloc, said the 75-member ad hoc committee on the BBL, chaired by Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro, should also invite constitutional-law expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas and Christian Monsod, who were among the living members of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1986 Constitution, and deans of the colleges of law of various universities, to ensure that the contentious and controversial provisions contained in the draft law submitted by Malacañang are “properly discussed and acted upon by Congress.”
On Monday Rodriguez said he wants Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairman Nur Misuari and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) leader Ameril Umbra Kato to attend the BBL panel hearings so that they could give their positions on the bill, which their groups opposed.
The Bangsamoro bill is seeking to implement the government’s peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Once enacted, the BBL would end 17 years of peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.
Moreover, Albano added the ad hoc committee on the BBL may also invite the legal minds belonging to the Philippine Constitutional Association (Philconsa), chaired by Retired Supreme Court Justice Manuel Lazaro, and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to help in the discussions of some of the contentious provisions in the proposed BBL that critics have declared “unconstitutional.”
“Instead of just inviting fugitive rebel leaders like MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari and BIFF leader Ameril Umbra Kato as resource persons, we must also invite the best and the brightest legal minds and heads of vanguard organizations like Philconsa and the IBP, which are committed to protecting and defending the Constitution to enlighten Congress on the so-called problematic provisions in the proposed Bangsamoro basic law,” Albano said.