VOL. XXIX NO. 354 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 MONday : FEBRUaRy 1, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Roxas: Duterte using me
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aDminiStRation giveS up on bbl By Christine F. Herrera
THE government’s chief peace negotiator admitted Sunday that the Bangsamoro Basic Law was dead and urged the next administration to pick up where the Aquino administration left off.
In an interview over radio dzBB, Miriam Coronel Ferrer, who headed the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said there was no hope that Congress would pass the Palace-backed BBL with only three session days left. She also urged the MILF not to use its 10,000 firearms during the coming elections. The MILF has committed not to wage war and to continue observing the ceasefire, and urged government troops not to engage the rebels in firefights. Despite appeals from President Benigno
Aquino III, only 50 of 292 lawmakers showed up at the plenary last week, bogging the BBL down by the lack of a quorum. Ferrer said without the BBL, the MILF could not be compelled to surrender their 10,000 firearms. Only 79 high-powered firearms have so far been turned over to the government as part of the decommissioning process under the peace deal. Also without the BBL, Ferrer said, the Palace could not release the agreed P70-billion block grant intended for development
projects in Mindanao. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong of Lanao del Sur earlier gave up on efforts to get their colleagues to attend sessions to pass the BBL. “Today, with a heavy heart and a disturbing sense of foreboding, I close the book of hope for the passage of the BBL,” Balindong said in a privilege speech. “Fifty-one public hearings, 200 hours of committee-level debates and eight months of consultations are all put to waste—thrown into the abyss of Next page
Clearing operation. Soldiers patrol a rice field during a clearing operation against Muslim renegades in Datu Piang town, Maguindanao, in this file photo. AFP
Santiago still top choice of students
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‘PNoy stupid for relying on incompetents’ By Macon Ramos-Araneta SENATOR Juan Ponce Enrile mocked President Benigno Aquino III on Sunday, saying he was stupid for depending on incompetent officers to lead the Mamasapano operation in January last year, and being the first Philippine president to abandon his troops to be
slaughtered. The President has consistently blamed dismissed Special Action Force commander Getulio Napeñas for the deaths of the 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, calling him stupid and incompetent. But Enrile said in a radio interview on dzBB that it was the President who
was stupid for depending on someone he later considered incompetent. He also hammered at the President for keeping his Cabinet and the military in the dark about the operation to neutralize two high-profile terrorists. “He took it upon himself. He thought he could do it, but he was incompetent,” Enrile said in Filipino. Next page