By Maecy Alviar
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (AA) – After a one-day delay, a key piece of legislation for expanded autonomy in a region of the southern Philippines was passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, and is due to be signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte was set to sign into law the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region before delivering his third State of the Nation Address on Monday, but the lower House failed to pass it due to a leadership struggle between incumbent speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former president and current Pampanga province representative.
The bill's passage followed Duterte pledging in his speech to sign it into law within 48 hours.
The measure, which aims to grant wider autonomy for the Bangsamoro – a collective term for Filipino Muslims – would replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region – a region with more political and fiscal powers including a bigger annual block grant equivalent to five percent of the total national internal revenue collection.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Moro rebel group in the Philippines, had forged the Bangsamoro Law with government representatives as one of the requirements of the peace agreement it signed in 2014 with then-President Benigno Aquino III.
