While the Senate leadership supports the reopening of the
Mamasapano probe, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon said that he can only
hope that the move will not further cause delay in the enactment of the
proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
“If reopening the Mamasapano will allow our esteemed colleague
Senator Juan Ponce Enrile to ask questions that he deemed are important to
ferret out the truth, then we support it,” Drilon said.
“But
given the upper chamber's extremely tight working schedule, I am really hoping
that the additional hearings will not affect the Senate’s work on its
continuing legislative priorities,” Drilon explained.
“When
we resume our plenary sessions on January 18, we have only about nine
full session days left before we again adjourn our sessions on February
5,” Drilon added.
“We still have many
proposed legislation to discuss and work on such as the BBL and the proposed
salary hike for public sector workers, so I am hopeful that reopening the
Mamasapano probe will not draw time, attention and energies away from our
lawmaking duties," Drilon said.
The Senate leader also expressed concerns that the passage
of the BBL may again be put in peril due to the issues surrounding the
Mamasapano incident.
“The Mamasapano
incident had created an immense political storm that seriously affected the
peace process which we had hoped would end decades of armed conflict in that
part of the country,” Drilon said.
While Drilon gave
assurance that the passage of the BBL will be the Senate’s top priority, he
hoped that the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) will continue to hold even if the current Congress fails to pass
the bill.
“The peace process
between the Philippine government and the MILF must continue to hold even if
the 16th Congress runs out of time in passing the proposed BBL organic law. We
must not abandon the many successes we have made so far in the Mindanao peace
process," Drilon concluded.
