PH peace panel chief debunks “tending lies” on BBL

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MANILA — Government chief peace negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer yesterday debunked two misconceptions in the provisions of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and described it as “top two trending lies.”

“What is going on now, what are being emphasized, are the supposed bad things of the BBL without the bigger picture of what’s good about it. This is my lament to the mass media, they only discuss the demerits without emphasizing the merits,” Ferrer said.

“The discussions are inaccurate or total falsehood, but the text of the BBL is clear,” she added.

The first of the two misconceptions is that the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous region will have its own police force and army.

The idea for this claim is the provision under Article XI Section 2 of the draft BBL, which states that a Bangsamoro police force would be established for “law enforcement and maintenance of peace and order in the Bangsamoro.

Ferrer, however, clarified that the said police “will be part of the Philippine National Police.”

Another misconception is that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will be handed a P75-billion fund under the BBL.

Under Article XIV Section 2 of the proposed BBL, the central government will be providing a special development fund to the Bangsamoro “for rehabilitation and development purposes upon ratification” of the draft law.

But the fund will only amount to P7 billion for the first year after the bill is ratified and P10 billion in the second year “to be paid out to the Bangsamoro government over five years at the rate of P2 billion per year.”

The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) will also be given P1 billion “to carry out the requirements of transition” from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the Bangsamoro autonomous region.