Drilon defends Marcos’ substitute bill to BBL

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By Hannah Torregoza

The changes Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. introduced in his substitute bill for the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) was only meant to ensure the measure would be consistent with the provisions of the Constitution.

Senate President Franklin Drilon made the statement as he defended Marcos from those who criticized him for coming up with a watered-down version of the BBL.

One of the facets of the measure they wanted to make sure is consistent with the Constitution is the removal of provisions that would establish a separate Philippine National Police (PNP) force, Commission on Audit, (COA) Commission on Elections (Comelec), Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and Office of the Ombudsman for the Bangsamoro government.

“Sa akin pong tingin, siyempre may mga binago kami. Halimbawa, iyong police siniguro natin na sasang-ayon sa structure ng ating Philippine National Police na kung saan ang National Police Commission (Napolcom) ang siyang may control sa ating national police force, ayon sa Saligang Batas, (In my view, of course, we need to introduce some changes. For example, we want to make sure that their police would follow the PNP structure where the Napolcom has control over the national police force),” Drilon said in a radio interview.

“Iyong COA, Comelec, atin pong inilagay sa tama at iyan po ang significant changes sa version ng Senado (we put them in the right place so those are the significant changes in the Senate version),” he further explained.