As expected but not planned for, the process of translating the Agreement reached between the negotiating parties into a Bangsamoro Basic Law hit delays President Aquino set out an infeasible timeline tied to his own rapidly shortening time in office. The draft law was to be submitted to Congress a short six weeks after the signing ceremony, the draft bill signed into law by year end with the referendum for areas presently outside the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao but able to join the new expanded Bangsamoro regional government by mid-2015 and the first elections for this new regional government to be held simultaneously with the 2016 presidential elections.
Fearful of successful constitutional challenges by opponents to the Bangsamoro Basic Law, President Aquino submitted the draft bill to Congress a full five months later than scheduled after significant legal scrubbing that led to accusations from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that Aquino was walking away from the Agreement." The 2008 Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain agreed upon by the two negotiating parties was quickly ruled unconstitutional ending the hope for a peace deal under President Macapagal-Arroyo. Even before the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law was tabled in September, congressional leaders ruled out being able to pass it by year-end, with the House of Representatives choosing to launch a long process of public consultations only ended in December 2014.