Against all odds, President B. S. Aquino 3rd wants to ram through the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, which seeks to create an Islamic political entity for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Some lawmakers, outraged by the Jan. 25, 21015 massacre of 44 Special Action Force police commandos by the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, have vowed to block the bill’s passage in its original form. But Aquino will not hear of any opposition. These are some of the things he has done:

First, he called on some members of Cory Aquino’s 1986-87 constitutional commission, especially those related to big business, to endorse the constitutionality of the bill, which its authors prematurely want to call a law, despite its many unconstitutional features. And they were more than eager to do so. Their opinion had no binding value on anybody, but Malacañang seemed to believe that the bill’s opponents could be swayed by what the former constitutional commissioners had to say.

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