By Ellson Quismorio Talks regarding the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) are heating up, but Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman today maintained that it's a "flawed" legislation. Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (FEDERICO CRUZ / MANILA BULLETIN) "There is a prejudicial question which must first be resolved -- whether the BBL is unconstitutional or not," Lagman told reporters during the "Magnificent Seven's" weekly press conference. "To my mind, it is unconstitutional because the constitution created the ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and recognized the ARMM. And we cannot abolish the ARMM by mere legislation," reckoned the veteran lawyer and legislator. "There has to be a Constitutional amendment first to replace the ARMM with another entity like the BBL," Lagman underscored. "The BBL is the enabling law of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) between the Philippine government and secessionist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). It bats for the creation of the Bangsamoro juridical entity, which is designed to supersede the ARMM. Lagman, a Liberal Party stalwart, claimed that he has held this view of the BBL even during the previous Aquino administration, which first pushed for the enactment of the controversial law. "Even during the previous administration I already said the basic flaw of the BBL is that it is unconstitutional," he said. The Magnificent Seven is the de facto opposition bloc in the House of Representatives. Also today, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Farińas bared that the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) has asked the House to give them until Monday next week to respond to the BBL amendments that were proposed by congressmen the previous day. "The BTC will bring the proposed amendments to its principals and will come back to us on Monday. We will have the caucus after I get their reaction," said Fariñas, who refused to divulge the amendments. Alvarez, Fariñas, officials of the BTC, the Government Republic of the Philippines (GRP) panel, and the heads of the House joint committees on local government (South Cotabato 1st district Rep. Pedro Acharon), Muslim affairs (Lanao del Sur 2nd district Rep. Mauyag Papandayan), and on peace, reconciliation, and unity (Tawi-Tawi lone district Rep. Ruby Sahali) met in a closed-door meeting that morning to hammer out the final version of the BBL. The House is currently rushing to pass on third and final reading House Bill 6475, which is Alvarez's version of the proposed BBL, before the end of the month or the sine die adjournment of the second regular session. The Speaker's bill--adopted last week by the tri-committee tasked to handle BBL-related bills in the current 17th Congress--is the same as the BBL version submitted by the BTC to Congress in July 2017. Both Alvarez and Fariñas expressed confidence that they can meet the deadline for the chamber's approval of BBL. "Tingin ko naman mukhang magkakaayos na...basta aabot yan (I think it will get sorted out...we will meet the deadline)," Alvarez said. "Yes , with the President certifying the bill as urgent," noted Fariñas.