Villarin: No peace in Mindanao through BBL with martial law in place

Akbayan party-list Representative Tom Villarin said Tuesday that peace in Mindanao cannot be achieved through the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) while martial law is still in place over the entire southern region.

“I would like to remind the President that there’s still martial law in Mindanao. We cannot talk about peace if martial law is being imposed on a region where conflict and poverty have long been an issue,” he told reporters at a press conference at the House of Representatives.

President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to lift his martial law proclamation in Mindanao even after declaring that Marawi City had been freed from the local terror group Maute.

The Maute group's attack in the city last May 23 prompted Duterte's proclamation.

“We cannot talk about a Bangsamoro region if the people in the Bangsamoro region are called suspects, of being involved in terrorist acts,” Villarin said, adding that peace in Mindanao could not be achieved when even the freedom of indigenous peoples and those not involved in the conflict are being “limited by martial law.”

Duterte on Monday said he will ask Congress to convene in a special session to discuss the proposed BBL, saying he wants lawmakers to hear the concerns of the Moro People.

Villarin called Duterte's seeming enthusiasm for the welfare of the Moro people as “double-speak,” which he said is something the President should not engage in.

“I think the President should not engage in double-speak. He wants to have a BBL but he doesn’t want to have peace in Mindanao. He wants a BBL that is suited not for the purposes of the whole nation but is suited for his agenda,” he said.

And that agenda, he added, seems to be premised on a possible nationwide declaration of martial law.

“And that agenda is being premised on imposing military rule and perhaps a dictatorial rule in the whole country. This push by the President, I think, does not hold substance,” he also said, questioning the “sincerity” of the President’s new statement, as his administration seems bent on “rushing things.”

Villarin was not alone in his sentiment against the seeming bid of the administration to “fast-track” the implementation of the BBL despite its supposed flaws.

At the same press conference, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman called “grossly premature” Duterte’s recent announcement of a projected special session for the BBL.

“The BBL bill must be first cleansed of constitutional infirmities, foremost of which is the legislative abolition of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) whose establishment is mandated by the 1987 Constitution,” he said.

“No amendment to the Charter is allowed by ordinary statute,” he added.

“Accordingly, there is need for a prior constitutional amendment to authorize the  replacement of the ARMM with the expanded and more powerful Bangsamoro Autonomous Region,” he also said.

Meanwhile, Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano touched on the subject of the supposedly “unconstitutional” provisions of the existing BBL, saying that expediting its implementation without due consideration would counter the Constitution.

“Now, if we will not go through meaningful discussions of the provisions of the BBL, at i-fast-track ang pagpasa, then that would be running against the provisions of the Constitution,” he said.

More, given the current thrust of the Duterte administration towards a federal form of government, Alejano said, why not wait for what would be a new Constitution and adjust the BBL accordingly.

“Bakit hindi nating hintayin yung outcome ng form of government na ‘yan and allow the BBL to conform with the provisions of the new Constitution? What we don’t want to happen is that we conform the provisions of the federal form of government to the BBL, so dapat baligtad po yan, diba,” he said. 

The BBL was meant to be the legal framework of the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. —ALG, GMA News