By Christine F. Herrera in Manila Standard Today

With or without Congress passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law by December, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority will start governing the 12 Mindanao provinces in January, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said on Wednesday.

Abad made the admission after lawmakers questioned the P2.7-billion appropriation for the Bangsamoro and the P23 billion allocated for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which will be dissolved and replaced by the Bangsamoro political entity even without the proposed Organic Law being submitted to Congress.

“We anticipate the enactment. The President made his appeal to Congress that if we can enact the Organic Act at the end of this year or early next year, then the Bangsamoro Transition Authority will take over and begin to govern the Bangsamoro area,” Abad told the House committee on appropriations, led by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab.

“It is difficult to scramble and provide for the necessary requirements of the BTA if this is done in 2015,” Abad said in answer to the queries made by Cebu Rep. Gabriel Luis Quisumbing, a member of the ruling Liberal Party.

“So what we are going to do is, we are anticipating. And you know, it’s also an expression of willingness to help the Executive to make provisions once the authority is there.

“This show of support is necessary. I think there will be discussions when we proceed with the MILF, how we implement this program.

“Here at least we have something.”

Malacañang, meanwhile, has accepted that the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law may no longer be passed in December amid the delay in the submission of the measure to Congress.

But presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said even if the BBL was passed into law by the first quarter of 2015, the administration still would still have enough time to put in place a Bangsamoro Transition Authority ahead of the 2016 elections.

The peace panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are still meeting in Davao City for a 10-day workshop that began on Monday in a bid to iron out language kinks as well as remedy the unconstitutional provisions in the draft BBL.

“We would certainly still hope for the best. Our understanding also from Senator Franklin Drilon is that he was working on a timetable from, if not the end of December, to the first quarter of next year,” Lacierda said. -- with Joyce Pangco Pañares

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