By Jaime Laude, Philippine Star

MANILA - The House of Representatives will delete at least eight ''unconstitutional'' provisions from the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said yesterday.

''Eight of these provisions are against the Constitution, while the ninth is not acceptable to most members from Mindanao,'' he said in a television interview.

Rodriguez chairs the 75-member ad hoc committee scrutinizing the draft BBL submitted by a joint panel composed of representatives from the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The proposed law is the product of years of peace talks between the two sides.

Rodriguez said five provisions in the BBL seek to create separate Commission on Audit (COA), Commission on Elections (Comelec), Civil Service Commission, Commission on Human Rights and Office of the Ombudsman for the planned new autonomous Bangsamoro region.

“These provisions are unconstitutional because Congress cannot pass a law that will interfere with the functions and operations of independent constitutional commissions like the COA, Comelec and the ombudsman’s office,” he said.

He disagreed with the assertion of government peace negotiators that the problem could be remedied by changing the language of the questionable sections.

“No, the problem is not the wording or the language. Even if we change the language, those provisions would still violate the Constitution. The envisioned Bangsamoro region cannot have its own audit agency or election body. The Constitution provides that we have only one COA, one Comelec, whose jurisdiction is national in scope,” he said.

He said the other constitutionally questionable sections require the President to coordinate military operations with the chief minister of the Bangsamoro region and empower such chief minister to have “control and supervision” over police forces in the region.

Rodriguez pointed out that the coordination requirement would diminish the power of the presidency, while giving the chief minister authority over policemen in the Bangsamoro region would run counter to the constitutional provision that there should be a national police force that is civilian in character and under the control of the National Police Commission.

As for the parliamentary setup in the envisioned new Bangsamoro regional government, the Cagayan de Oro lawmaker said Article X of the Constitution “gives Congress the power to prescribe a different political structure best suited for autonomy.”

“Having a parliamentary structure in Bangsamoro while we have a national presidential system of government is not against the Constitution,” he said.

Under the draft BBL, the new autonomous Muslim region would have a parliament whose members are elected at large. The parliament will choose the region’s chief minister.

Some resource persons invited by the Rodriguez committee to its hearings have asserted that having a regional political structure different from the national presidential system would go against the Constitution.

Rodriguez said the provision authorizing the conduct of a plebiscite in any territory contiguous to the Bangsamoro region where 10 percent of residents want to join the autonomous regional government is not acceptable to Mindanao lawmakers.

“It will allow a creeping expansion of the Bangsamoro region,” he said.