WHEREAS, under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and under Section 5 of the Executive Order (EO) No. 120 (s. 2012), the Bangsamoro Transition Commission shall cease to operate upon the enactment by Congress of the Bangsamoro Basic Law;

WHEREAS, under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority will be created only upon the promulgation and ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law;

WHEREAS, if the Bangsamoro Basic Law is enacted and ratified, there may be a gap in the intervening period between enactment and ratification within which neither the Bangsamoro Transition Commission nor the Bangsamoro Transition Authority will exist to address the issues relevant to the Bangsamoro Basic Law and to the Bangsamoro as a whole;

WHEREAS, there is a need to further strengthen and expand the functions of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission to address this foreseen gap during the intervening period between the enactment and ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law; and

WHEREAS, extending the duration of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission until such time that the Bangsamoro Basic Law is ratified, and vesting additional functions in such Commission, can better facilitate an efficient transition upon the ratification of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

NOW, THEREFORE I, BENIGNO S. AQUINO III, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order:

Section 1. Section 3(e) of EO No. 120 is hereby amended to read as follows:

œe. To prepare and draft a Code of Parliamentary Procedures for the Future Bangsamoro Parliament and a Bangsamoro Administrative Code for the consideration of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority. 

The current Section 3(e) is hereby renumbered as Section 3(f).

Section 2. Section 5 of EO No. 120 is hereby amended to read as follows:

œSECTION 5. Duration. - The Commission shall cease to operate upon the ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in a plebiscite called for such purpose. 

Section 3. Repealing Clause. All orders, proclamations, rules, regulations, previous issuances, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Order, are hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

Section 4. Separability. Should any provision of this Order be declared invalid or unconstitutional, the other provisions unaffected thereby shall remain valid and subsisting.

Section 5. Effectivity. This Order shall take effect upon publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 20th day of August, in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Fifteen.

(SGD.) BENIGNO S. AQUINO III

By the President:

(SGD.) PAQUITO N. OCHOA, JR.
Executive Secretary