House suspends Bangsamoro Basic Law hearings

It’s official—all hearings of on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be suspended in the House of Representatives.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the ad hoc committee on the BBL, said that the suspension is intended to give way to the various ongoing investigations on the Mamasapano clash.

This also means that the government’s self-imposed timeline to pass the BBL—a requirement for the creation of a Bangsamoro entity will be affected.

Rodriguez also said that this will give lawmakers time to review incident reports from the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The House had asked for the reports when it first suspended the BBL hearings indefinitely on January 26, the day after the Mamasapano clash.

There is no date yet for the resumption of the hearings.