MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte told congressional leaders that the Bangsamoro Basic Law should be passed within the year and he pressed them for a deadline before his annual address to Congress in July, a rebel leader said Friday.

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The President was "very serious" in pushing for the passage of the Bangsamoro law ahead of his State of the Nation Address on July 23, said Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar, who was present at the gathering last Wednesday.

Also present during the meeting, according to Jaafar, were Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Senator Manny Pacquiao, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal.

• Duterte says he's 'racing against time' on BBL

"The President assured us that the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law will be passed and enacted into law before the end of this year," Jaafar told ANC's Early Edition.

While the MILF has "no objections" to the version of the BBL pending at the Senate, Jaafar said his group had "some problems" with the one at the House of Representatives, which included some watered-down provisions.

"A BBL which is watered down is unacceptable to the people, to the Muslims and to the IPs (indigenous peoples), the people in the ground," he said.

Jaafar said the MILF submitted to congressional leaders a list of some 100 proposed amendments. Three House committees will vote on these amendments week after next, he said.

"We will talk to the heads of the committees about our concern and we will propose to them something so that this can be settled and at the end, it will be everybody happy," he said.