BARMM News:
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By EDD K. USMAN
@edd1819 | @bluestar0910 | SDN — Science and Digital News
(SDN) April 19, 2022 — The Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) is holding today, Tuesday, a virtual consultation for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.
Bangsamoro Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, head of MBHTE, issued Regional Memorandum No. 389, Series of 2022, for the consultation.
He addressed the memorandum to all presidents, superintendents, administrators, and heads of public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) operating in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). It’s titled “MBHTE-Higher Education Stakeholders Virtual Consultation for FY 2023, dated April 13, 2022.
“This is in compliance with the Bangsamoro Budget Memorandum No. 2022-01 with the subject: Bangsamoro Budget Call for FY 2023 dated March 25, 2022 for ministries/offices in BARMM to conduct a consultation among its respective stakeholders region-wide in order to come up with the best proposed programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023,” Minister Iqbal said in his memorandum.
He said the 2022 consultation as compared to 2021’s is aimed at giving participants inputs on BARMM higher education’s development “towards crafting of relevant and responsive PAPs for FY 2023.”
In connection with the objective, he said, speakers for the consultation were asked to discuss relevant topics as input before the consultation proper.
Minister Iqbal said that owing to the Mandanas Ruling1, the consultation for 2022 “also strives to get a feel of the directions of the Local Government Units (LGUs) pertaining to the development of education in their respective localities, particularly investment programming in higher education, especially the LGUs where the seven (7) Ministry-Supervised Higher Education Institutions (MSHEIs) are located.:
The memorandum named the seven MSHEIs, to wit: Balabagan Trade School, Hadji Butu School of Arts and Trades, Lanao Agricultural College, Lapak Agricultural School, Unda Memorial National Agricultural School, Upi Agricultural School, and Regional Madrasah Graduate Academy. Minister Iqbal emphasized the above-mentioned HEIs are “directly supervised and controlled by MBHTE” using funding from the BARMM Block Grant.
Expected participants in the virtual consultation are 191 representatives of various HEIs, including from LGUs, MBHTE Higher Education Office and Finance Division, and from the education ministry’s partners.
Under the leadership of Minister Iqbal, the Bangsamoro education agency has been addressing the needs of Muslim Mindanao’s youth, as it echoes the BARMM motto that “no one will be left behind”.
The Bangsamoro region is composed of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi as well as 63 villages designated as Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato province (which itself is not part of BARMM).
It was given birth by the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and is implemented on the ground through the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), thereby, giving rise to what is called by peacemakers the “dividends of peace”. (✓)
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1 The Mandanas Doctrine clarifies that the share from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of the local government units (LGUs) does not exclude other national taxes like customs duties. The exclusion of other national taxes like customs duties from the base for determining the just share of the LGUs contravened the express constitutional edict in Section 6, Article X[1] of the 1987 Constitution.