Chief gov't negotiator on BBL passage: 'Kaya pa yan!'

Despite the limited time available, the government remains optimistic that Congress will still be able to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law before the Aquino administration ends.

"Kaya pa yan! We don’t give up, there is still hope," Miriam Coronel Ferrer, chief government negotiator in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told GMA News Online by phone. 

"You don't give up when you still see a glimmer of hope," she added.

Ferrer said they are leaving the possible passage of the draft law, which embodies the peace agreement between the government and the MILF, to Congress leaders, with whom they have already discussed the matter.

"Sila ang nakakaalam ng dapat gawin," she said.

Plan B

Asked if they have a Plan B if ever Congress fails to approve the bill, Ferrer said they already have it "at the back of our mind" but they are still counting on the lawmakers to push for the measure's enactment.

"We are still working until the last session day to see this through," she said, as she admitted that their only setback is the schedule.

"We set back the roadmap by one year, that’s basically our Plan B, but the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro  (CAB) remains," Ferrer said.

Asked if she has an appeal on the next administration regarding the BBL, Ferrer said she will leave it up to the country’s next leaders.

"We know the next leaders have their own plans, we don't want to impose on them," she said.

She just said that the Aquino administration honored all the past agreements to move forward with the peace negotiation with the MILF. "Siyempre hindi mo na alam ang stability of the situation, kung ire-retract kasi it will cause further delay."

Third Party Monitoring Team

In a press statement Sunday, Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT) chairman Alistair MacDonald recommended an intensified effort from both peace panels to promote the passage of a CAB-compliant BBL.

He also recommended the panels to manage public expectations in the event that Congress is not able to complete its legislative work on the proposed law and reach an agreement on a Plan B.

The TPMT has expressed the "ongoing, indeed increasing, uncertainties regarding the possible outcome of the legislative process" concerning the BBL.

"It is difficult to look forward, at a time when there are so many uncertainties as to whether a BBL will be passed, whether if passed the BBL will be compliant with the CAB, and whether if not passed the next administration will be committed to carry forward the process,” MacDonald said.

The TPMT is an independent body that tracks the implementation of the CAB.

Concerns

In a letter to Ferrer and Mohagher Iqbal, MILF negotiator, MacDonald said stakeholders' "concerns about the delays in the legislative process," the "content of any BBL which might be adopted by Congress" as well as about the "continuity of the process, if indeed a BBL cannot be passed under this administration."

He said the observations of the TPMT arose from its December meetings with MILF members led by Chair Murad Ebrahim, the MILF Central Committee, peace panel and mechanisms; the multinational International Monitoring Team and Independent Decommissioning Body; the Bangsamoro Development Authority and civil society representatives.

On the side of government, the peace monitors also met with the GPH panel, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, and members of the House of Representatives and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

The TPMT also held meetings with the chairman of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission, members of the International Contact Group and the people behind Fastrac, a joint initiative of the United Nations and the World Bank providing support to the Bangsamoro peace process.

December 8 meeting

MacDonald described as “encouraging” the meeting last December 8 called by President Benigno Aquino III with "a large number of members of the House, and that thereafter the House was able to at least close the period of interpellation in the final days of its December session" despite its inability to establish a quorum over the past several months.

The BBL is under the period of interpellation in the Senate.

Despite delays on the passage of the BBL, the TPMT lauded the progress in the normalization aspect of the CAB.

“[T]he BBL is only one element (though a crucial element) in the peace process, and developments in the area of normalization should not be overlooked,” MacDonald said.

“Here, there have been some positive developments – for example the ongoing implementation of large-scale Joint Peace and Security Team (JPST) training, the work of the Joint Task Force for the Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities (TFDCC) and Task Force Camps Transformation (TFCT), the completion of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-MILF (DSWD-MILF) profiling of the 145 former combatants, and the strengthening of the organizational coherence and footprint on the ground of the International Decommissioning Body (IDB),” he added. —KBK, GMA News