Ad hoc panel, envoys hold executive session on Bangsamoro bill

House of Representatives. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives ad hoc Bangsamoro committee held an executive session on Tuesday with representatives of various embassies to talk about the Bangsamoro basic bill that seeks to implement the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Among those invited were Australian Ambassador Bill Tweddell, Egypt Ambassador Mahmoud Mostafa, European Union Ambassador Guy Ledoux, Indonesian Ambassador Johny Lumintang, Japan Ambassador Tetsuro Amano, Malaysia Ambassador Ibrahim Saad, Saudi Arabia Ambassador Abdullah Al Hassan, Spain Ambassador Luis Calvo, Turkey Ambassador Esra Cankokur, United Kingdom Ambassador Asif Ahmad, and US Ambassador Philip Goldberg.

The ambassadors, however, were only represented by their deputies, based on a list of attendance obtained by reporters. Goldberg also expressed regrets that he would not be able to attend.

The representatives were: Richard Rodgers and Dwan Mel Dumas for Australia’s Tweddell, Edoardo Manfredini for EU’s Ledoux, Fenny Maharani and Ade Petranto for Indonesia’s Lumintang, Akmal Che Mustafa and Zahid Rastam for Malaysia’s Saad, Ishaq Aloraini and Amer Hadji Noor for Saudi Arabia’s Al Hassan, Ignacio Perez-Cambra for Spain’ Calvo, and Thomas Phipps for UK’s Ahmad.

According to its rules, the House may hold an executive (or confidential) session when the security of the state or the dignity of the House or any of its members are affected by any motion or petition being considered.

Even the peace panels of the government and the MILF, as well as members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission were ordered to leave the room for the executive meeting.

The House is conducting consultations over the bill that seeks to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a new Bangsamoro entity and end decades of Muslim secessionist movement in the region.

Once the bill is passed, it would have to go through a plebiscite for ratification.

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