THE BICAMERAL conference committee tasked to reconcile the two versions of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) has agreed to retain provisions already granted to the Autonomous Region of the Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). “We’ve reached the consensus that whatever was in the ARMM Law, Republic Act 9054, we will retain and hopefully enhance,” Senate Majority Leader Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri said in a press briefing Monday, the start of the bicameral committee’s deliberations. “In other words, we do not want an ARMM minus, what we want is an ARMM plus,” he added. Bangsamoro Transition Commission Chairman Ghazali B. Jaafar echoed this, saying that maintaining current provisions present in RA 9054, the amended Organic Act of the ARMM, would save Congress from questions of constitutionality. Mr. Jaafar pointed out that whatever authority ARMM currently has could not be unconstitutional since it is already contained in a law. He also said anything less than the ARMM would be deemed as a watered-down BBL, which people on the ground might not accept. “When it is not accepted by the people on the ground, meaning they will not approve (it) in the plebiscite, (and) they will vote it out,” he explained. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

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