By Hannah Torregoza, Manila Bulletin

Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. yesterday expressed relief Congress has given up discussing on Malacañang’s proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) measure because lawmakers have seen that the draft measure is full of constitutional problems despite the strong lobbying by government peace panel and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the passage of the original bill.

“In the Senate we don’t even talk of the BBL anymore. Because the BBL is the name of the bill given to us by the Palace. That’s dead. It has no chance of passage in the House, no passage in the Senate,” said Marcos during a roundtable discussion with Manila Bulletin editors and other editorial staff where he shared his views on the BBL.

“We now talk about the substitute bills that are being filed,” said the senator who heads the Senate Committee on Local Government assigned to review the draft law.

Marcos said he is happy that his colleagues in the Senate, particularly Senate President Franklin Drilon, an ally of President Aquino, support his views on the BBL.

“I’m happy that my position there was seen as correct, but I could not really take any other position after I looked at the draft that was given us. And then after studying the history of everything that happened in Muslim Mindanao, it’s the only thing we could do,” Marcos said.

“I don’t have anything against the MILF, in that regard. What I really think is that our government dropped the ball. In many ways, I think the single greatest weakness in their approach to the peace process was to consider all Muslim Filipinos to be one single homogenous group, which is certainly not the case.”

The state negotiators, Marcos pointed out, clearly failed to make the draft BBL an inclusive measure when it failed to incorporate the government’s agreement with former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Nur Misuari’s Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

“I am not working to promote one group over another. What I’m working for is peace. And whatever it will take, we should do that. That is why I think that we have to take a step back and gain a little bit more perspective than what we had had. Because ang nagiging obsession eh, BBL, BBL!” he lamented.

Both the Senate and House, he said, are trying to work for the bill’s passage before next month’s adjournment, Oct. 9. But he said he doubts if the lawmakers have enough time to take it up when they resume sessions on Nov. 3.

“Because by then the budget will come to the Senate,” he said referring to the proposed P3.002-trillion 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

On the budget bill, he assured the 2016 Appropriation Act won’t feature any appropriation for the proposed Bangsamoro government. “They tried to do that in the House, but the House rejected that proposal because you cannot set aside a budget for an entity that doesn’t exist,” Marcos said.

“So they might try to introduce it again, but the Constitution is clear you cannot. We will continue to treat the existing ARMM structure as the existing body of the autonomous region, up until the bill is passed,” Marcos said.