By Macon Ramos-Araneta, The Standard

SENATOR Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday the threat of a reorganization in the Senate leadership to hasten the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law will not cow him. 

“Put it this way: What [President Benigno Aquino III] said was ‘We may have to reorganize the Senate to speed up the passage [of the BBL]’,” Marcos said during Thursday’s breakfast forum at the Senate.

“I don’t know what he meant.”

Marcos was then asked: “Will you be cowed?”

He replied: “Nothing will change [when you reorganize] because if you reorganize, it will not make the BBL more constitutional. If you reorganize, it will not change the problems that we found in the BBL.”

Marcos made his statement even as Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the House had practically two more months to dissect the proposed BBL when it resumes sessions in July.

He said he was hopeful the Lower House would be able to pass the measure that will pave the way for the creation of a new Bangsamoro political entity.

“I’m confident that the House will be able to do it,” Belmonte said.

Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said the House leadership’s target for the voting for House Bill 5811, the substitute for HB 4994, or An Act Providing the Basic Law for Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, would be in August  at the earliest.

Senator Francis Escudero, meanwhile, is pushing for the inclusion in the BBL a detailed timetable for the decommissioning of the weapons and combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to ensure a smooth transition from conflict to peace in Mindanao.

Marcos, head of the Senate’s local government committee that is tackling the BBL,said any reorganization will would help the legislative process.

“That’s what I am saying.  I do not know where this came from, but it does not come from somebody who has an understanding of what we are doing. Let us just see what the committee is doing,” he he said.

Marcos said he did not see the need for changes in the [Senate’] committee leadership.

“No, I don’t think so. I just received a report that there was mention of a reorganization... Now, we are  under threat of reorganization of the Senate,” he said.

He also warned that there might be chaos in case of a reorganization because it would not help. With Maricel V. Cruz