MANILA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The House of Representatives of the Philippines approved on third and final reading the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) on Wednesday.
A total of 227 lawmakers voted for the bill, while 11 voted against it. Two lawmakers abstained.
The BBL seeks to establish a proposed new autonomous political entity for Filipino muslims in the southern Philippines.
The BBL provides a basic structure of government focusing on the rights of the Bangsamoro people, described as "natives or original inhabitants of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago and its adjacent islands including Palawan."
The measure paves the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro, the successor to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) established in 1989.
President Rodrigo Duterte has certified the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) as urgent, his spokesperson Harry Roque said Tuesday.
Once both chambers have reconciled and finalized the version, Roque said Duterte will sign the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
In a forum in February, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chair Al Haj Ebrahim Murad stressed the need to pass the proposed bill into law within the year, warning that failure to pass the proposed BBL may trigger a renewed war in the Mindanao region.
Mindanao continues to be under martial rule.
Duterte placed the entire Mindanao under martial rule after local terrorists, with the help of their foreign comrades, attacked Marawi City in May last year, triggering a five-month intense fighting that ruined the city and claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people.
The MILF is currently talking peace with the government, and the BBL is an important component of the peace agreement that seeks to end decades of fighting in the southern Philippines' Mindanao region.
