Twitter: @edd1819, Instagram: @bluestar0910, Facebook: SDN — Science, Digital & Current Affairs
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-b4u
By EDD K. USMAN
(SDN) — Bangsamoro region Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim today, July 14, 2021, kicked off a series of pre-summit activities in Basilan province.
The region in Southern Philippines is comprised of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays (villages) dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato that voted to be under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Pre-summit an opportunity
Interior Minister and BARMM Spokesman Naguib G. Sinarimbo said the activities will pave the way for the planned 2021 Bangsamoro Governance Summit soon.
The head of the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG), youthful lawyer and veteran of the two-tracked Mindanao peace process, he said pre-summit activities will be conducted in all the region’s provinces, including in the SGA).
Sinarimbo cited the goal of the pre-summit events.
“The Pre-summit will allow ministries of the Bangsamoro Government to present their proposed 2022 Programs to the LGUs (local government units) while at the same time LGUs will be given a chance to present their own programs and allow them to present projects for funding by the Regional Government thru its ministries,” he pointed out.
In turn, Sinarimbo said the regional government — established as a new political entity (NPE) as a product of the decades-long peace process through the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) — will provide the Bangsamoro government the opportunity “to converge the programs of the Region and that of the LGUs creating, thereby, a common vision and development thrust by complementing their programs and resources.”
“This will, hopefully, unleash the combined potentials of the Region and the LGUs and usher in an era of greater cooperation and complementation.”
Various ministries of the region being governed through the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) presented their respective reports of their achievements for the last over two years as well as plans going forward.
Recall that the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) established the new Bangsamoro NPE, replacing and abolishing the unlamented ARMM.
The BTA which runs the Bangsamoro government has three years tenure until 2022, unless Congress extends the transition phase.
Extension of transition phase awaited
Over the past months multi-sector and various quarters in Mindanao joined Chief Minister Ebrahim, the BARMM Parliament and its ministers in calling for a three-year extension of the BTA until 2025.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte, whose brinkmanship and decisive leadership produced the BOL, left it to Congress to decide on the extension. Congressional act is needed to amend the BARMM Organic Law to effect the extension.
Under the leadership of Senate President Vicente Sotto III some senators have voiced support for the call.
In the House of Representatives there’s still no determination yet as the bill on extension has yet to be fully taken.
Meanwhile, the Bangsamoro leadership awaits the fate of the clamor for a May 2022 to May 2025 extension of the BTA.
One of the oft-cited reasons for the call refers to the continuation of the BTA’s mandate to fully implement its work in putting up the region’s governance structure, among many others, as well as important aspects attendant to it. (✓)