Under the Divisional Structure of the Bangsamoro Parliament and exemplified by the December 2020’s Resolution No. 96, the Policy Research and Legal Services (PRLS) shall provide support to the Members of the Parliament—including the Parliament’s departments, services, and division offices (referred here as Parliamentary Professionals)—with all forms of legislative reviews and types of legislative briefs including efficient legal assistance across legislative measures, agenda, and concerns.

Services Deliverable

• Legislative Reviews (Legislative Research Reviews and Legal Reviews)
• Legislative Briefs (Legislative Research Notes, Legal Opinions, and Legal Primers)
• Legislative Workshops (policy research and bill drafting workshops)

PRLS advances a research culture grounded on multiperspectivist thinking both critical and jurisprudential, including lived experiences of the Bangsamoro peoples in addressing the following focal service areas:

Office of the Service Director’s service areas

1. Coordinate and supervise the entire management operations of the Service.
2. Orient and remind the technical and administrative staff of the PRLS mandate, its mission-vision, its Service Manual, and Code of Conduct.
3. Assess the research and “review works” of the two PRLS divisions, the research and legal.
4. Oversees the “legislative review request” from the Members of the Parliament starting from assigning them to the divisions, proofreading the division’s works, designing properly their outputs, and until releasing the final works.
5. Supervise and organize the publication of all forms of legislative reviews and types of legislative briefs.
6. Manage and administer the PRLS website and social media accounts.
7. Facilitate physical, virtual, or hybrid workshops on policy research and/or bill drafting.
8. Initiate cooperation, coordinate collaboration, and establish partnership among stakeholders both within and outside BARMM under the guidance of the Secretary-General and approval of the Parliament Speaker.

Legislative Research Division’s service areas

1. Review, assess, and analyze legislative measures and laws upon request from a Member of the Parliament and/or Parliamentary Professional (referred to as “Legislative Research Reviews”).
2. Provide impartial assessments and brief analyses on issues of legislative significance and collect facts, descriptions, and statistics that are evaluated based on their relevance, soundness, and their potential to enrich and substantiate discussions on legislation (referred to as “Legislative Research Notes”).
3. Lead in conducting the Policy Research workshop.

Legislative Measures and Legal Assistance Division’s service areas

1. Provide an in-depth and comprehensive evaluation of the current draft of a bill to ensure its constitutionality and consistency with national and regional laws, upon request from a Member of the Parliament (referred to as “Legal Reviews”).
2. Respond to an existing query on legal matters and review of legal documents affecting the Bangsamoro Parliament upon request from a Member of the Parliament and/or Parliamentary Professionals (referred to as “Legal Opinions”).
3. Summarize Bangsamoro Autonomy Acts by underscoring their salient provisions (referred to as “Legal Primers”).
4. Lead in conducting the Bill Drafting workshop.