QUEZON CITY, June 8 – No one will be forced to join the Bangsamoro region, House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), represented by committee member and Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong said.
“[Opting in the Bangsamoro] is a democratic freedom of the people. If the people don’t want to opt in, that is [also] their freedom,” Loongsaid during the third day of plenary debates on the bill in the House of Representatives on June 4.
“Why should we force them? Anyway that is their freedom. We have to respect their freedom. If they don’t want to join, let it be like that,” he added.
Loong also explained that the bill outlines a process in terms of joining the area of the Bangsamoro region, making fears of a “creeping expansion” unfounded.
“10% (of signatures of voters in any area) is just to signify intention, but the one (that) will decide is the majority vote cast in the plebiscite (to decide if they will opt in to join the Bangsamoro),” Loong said.
According to the proposed law forwarded by the Ad Hoc Committee to the plenary, areas outside the jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro region may join only if they are contiguous or adjacent to component units of the Bangsamoro and are within the area of autonomy identified in the 1976 Tripoli Agreement.
The local government unit or geographic area will then have to file a petition for inclusion of at least 10% of registered voters, after which a plebiscite will be held in the affected areas to determine inclusion. The proposed law allows petitions for inclusion only during the fifth and tenth year after the enactment of the Basic Law.
Loong also emphasized that the inclusion of an opt-in provision in the law will be for the people to decide once it undergoes popular ratification through a plebiscite.
“We cannot go against the will of the people,” Loong said. “If the expression of the will of the people of those areas included in the Tripoli Agreement is to have an opt-in provision, I think we cannot really go against what the people want.”
He added that the final arbiter of this Bangsamoro Basic Law is the sovereign will of the people.
“It is not for this Congress to approve, it is not for the executive branch to approve, it is for the people to approve,” Loong said.
Also present to defend the bill in the plenary was Committee vice Chair and Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal. Plenary debates were suspended after interpellations by Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat, Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Seth Jalosjos, and Palawan Rep. Frederick Jalosjos, and are set to resume today, June 8, Monday.(PPMB)
