MANILA, Philippines — President Benigno S. Aquino said he will study the six-inch-thick draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law over the weekend and ensure its ratification in Congress so that the new Bangsamoro government would be in place by January 2015.
“I have to confess, it’s siguro about six inches thick, ‘yung the law itself and also ‘yung comments by both parties. I have reserved Sunday to go through each and every one of those pages and hopefully, I can be of help to get both sides to really be fully supportive of the measure,” the President told reporters here Friday.
He said that during their brief meeting in Hiroshima, he and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim discussed the output of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.
“Now, we’re putting in all of the details and I asked him if it would be possible to meet sometime next week, either their panels or we, in particular, or our designated representatives to thresh it out and come up with the proposed measure and send it to Congress, even before the SONA (State of the Nation Address),” he said.
He noted that Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Teresita Deles met with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr. on Thursday (June 26) to hasten the process of coming up with the proposed measure that both sides can fully support and endorse.
“But I can assure the Filipino people that we will be exerting all efforts to ensure that this measure is passed in a timely manner because the dream still is to give the new Bangsamoro government time to demonstrate its abilities… We’re hoping that all the steps will be done that they can sit in office by January 2015,” President Aquino said.
The draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law was submitted by the Bangsamoro Transition Committee last May and is being studied by the legal team of the Office of the President and by the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.
