(UNSPLASH / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Through the years, we’ve had non-Muslim women share with us their own experience with the hijab. Their stories ranged from those of finding quiet empowerment under the veil, to stories of being discriminated against because of a piece of cloth they they’ve decided to wear,” Sangcopan said in a privilege speech.
Sangcopan, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs, stressedt aht wearing the hijab is neither “an obligation nor an act of oppression” but is in fact, “an act of empowerment and conscious decision among women, regardless of faith, that amount to a change in today’s world where discrimination has become rampant and universal, prejudice and cruel.”
Maguindanao 2nd district Rep. Esmael Mangudadatu
(Photo by LJ Pasion|MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
He urged all concerned stakeholders to “have more faith in the principled intentions” of the BARMM’s transitional government.
“These are truly difficult times. The nation’s economy took a beating from the advent of COVID-19 but the government and the Bangsamoro leadership along with the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) members, ministries, and offices were determined to hurdle and surpass these challenges evident to what they were able to achieve to date,” he said in a statement as BARMM celebrates its Foundation Day.
Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, the House Committee on Muslim Affairs, and the Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity started tackling several measures seeking to defer the BARMM elections scheduled on the second Monday of May 2022.
(UNSPLASH / MANILA BULLETIN)
The vice chairperson of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs cited that the House Committee on Muslim Affairs has already endorsed the plenary approval of House Bill No. 8249, which aims to promote an understanding of the Muslim tradition of wearing a hijab.
“I am urging the House Committee on Rules to calendar the bill for plenary discussion when Congress resumes session on Jan. 18.We’ve been waiting for the passage of the National Hijab Day,” she said in a Viber message.
“The same bill was approved in the House of Representatives on third and final reading last Congress. I am hoping this time, it passes into law,” she added.
House bills filed to extend term of Bangsamoro Transition Authority By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News
Published December 14, 2020 12:19pm At least three measures have already been filed at the House of Representatives seeking to extend the term of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) for three years to allow more time for the full transition to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). House Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity chair Esmael Mangudadatu on Monday announced that he has filed House Bill 8117, which seeks to postpone the first BARMM elections from 2022 to 2025, effectively extending the term of its members. He said Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda and Majority Leader Martin Romualdez have also filed House Bills 8116 and 8161, respectively, which aso seek to move the BARMM elections until 2025.
Bills extending Bangsamoro transition period to be tackled in January 2021
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 15) The House of Representatives will start deliberating on bills to extend the term of Bangsamoro Transition Authority officials in January next year.
At least three bills have been filed in the House seeking to extend the BTA’s term. House Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Chairman Esmael Mangudadatu on Monday said the bills have been referred to his panel, as well as the House Committees on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, and Muslim Affairs.
The first regular elections for the Bangsamoro Parliament is slated for May 2022, in line with the national and local elections in the Philippines. Should the BTA extension bills become a law, the first regular elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will be moved from 2022 to 2025.