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• EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News

(SDN) — No more Hajj role for the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).

Except “to register and accredit sheikhs”.

House Bill No. 9096 wants to amend Republic Act (R.A.) No. 9997, the NCMF Charter, and clip the Commission’s role in the conduct of the Makkah pilgrimage.

That’s the meat of Basilan Rep. Mujiv S. Hataman’s H.B. No. 9096 he filed in Congress. Apparently, he wants reforms in the conduct and administration of the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, which has been perennially problematic since the time of the defunct Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) and carried over with the NCMF. R.A. No. 9997 created the NCMF and abolished the OMA in 2010, inheriting the conduct of the pilgrimage.

H.B. No. 9096 defines “sheikhs” (guides of pilgrims) as “private individuals or entities engaged in facilitating, processing, and providing guidance for the annual hajj for Muslim Filipinos”.

To implement the objective of the legislative measure, the Basilan congressman’s bill will purge out the Bureau of Pilgrimage and Endowment (BPE) of the NCMF and replace it with a Bureau of Endowment (BE).

In fairness, SDN — SciTech & Digital News asked NCMF officials through text messages and Messenger to get their side on H.B. No. 9096.

NCMF Commissioner Yusoph J. Mando, the agency’s spokesman, responded.

“Our BLA (Bureau of Legal Affairs) office will  release a position paper soon,” he said. The BLA is headed by a lawyer, Director Rolando Abo, a native of Maguindanao del Sur.

It can be recalled the nine commissioners of the NCMF issued En Banc Resolution No. 17, Series of 2023, on August 14 that proclaimed the Hajj 2023 operation a “success”, in effect erasing any blame on the agency and its officials. Observers said the commissioners went against the current of the times.

Related: Click the link for the story on the en banc Resolution No. 17:

Here’s what H.B. No. 9096 wants to happen:

It says the BE’s primary responsibility would be to administer “awqaf (trust) properties and institutions, and the conduct of research and studies for the establishment and maintenance of Islamic centers and awqaf properties”.

Take good note of the exclusion of the NCMF’s role on registering local pilgrims and facilitating their Hajj visa, and booking their flights to Saudi Arabia and back to Manila.

Here’s the proof. To be known as “The NCMF Reform Act of 2023”, H.B. No. 9096’s Section 2 removes the powers and functions of NCMF over the annual hajj operation as mandated through the agency’s Charter.

Those powers and functions are “hereby removed”, the Basilan solon’s bill emphasizes, amending the NCMF law.

The bureaus of the NCMF as the bill proposes to amend would then be Bureau of Muslim Economic Affairs (BMEA), Bureau of Muslim Cultural Affairs (BMCA), Bureau of Muslim Settlement (BMS), Bureau of External Relations (BER), Bureau of Endowment (BE) (emphasis supplied), Bureau of Peace and Conflict Resolution (BPCR), and Bureau of Legal Affairs (BLA). “Pilgrimage” is excised from the replacement bureau.

That seems to be the biggest change in the NCMF as seen in Hataman’s bill.

Section 2 of H.B. No. 9096 amends Section II, Article II of R.A. No. 9997, which pertains to the Commission’s bureaus, replacing BPE with BE.

Another obvious change attendant to the removal of the NCMF powers and functions on pilgrimage in the proposed bill is the absence of a mention of an “Ameerul Hajj” (Head of Hajj Mission), of which R.A. No. 9997 specifies that the head of the NCMF takes the title through a presidential designation.

In the bill proper there’s no mention of what agency of the government would take over the conduct of the Hajj. Only in its Explanatory Note that it’s made clear: it’s not government but private sector.

Over at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the regional government through its Bangsamoro Pilgrimage Authority (BPA)  has been aiming to at least co-operate the Hajj operation with the NCMF.

Section 3 of H.B. No. 9096 calls for the President to appoint a Hajj Attaché from three recommendees of the Commission, either a male or a female.

The Hajj Attaché’s functions cover coordination with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj “on matters pertaining to the conduct of the annual Hajj where government-to-government action is necessary including certification as to change of Pilgrims’ name, but not to intervene in the administration, conduct, facilitation or processing of Hajj for Muslim Filipinos”.

Qualifications of the Hajj Attaché include academic degree, fluency in written and spoken Arabic. He/she will hold office in Saudi Arabia. Rank, salary, and privileges are similar with the national government’s attaché.

H.B. No. 9096: Hajj administration — from government to private sector

H.B. No. 9096’s Explanatory Note signed by Hataman relives the litany of problems that hit the 2023 Hajj of over 7,000 Filipino pilgrims, saying the “recent issues…brought to light, yet again, the years of poor treatment of Filipino pilgrims suffering from poor living conditions, delayed and substandard meals, and delayed transportation, among others”.

Filipino pilgrims, it adds, paid for their pilgrimage at a high cost for the service provided/facilitated by the NCMF.

The Explanatory Note also highlights the Filipino pilgrims’ ordeal in Muzdalifah (where all pilgrims stay overnight after they descend from the plains of Arafat to pray and collect 47 pebbles for the Jamarat Stone Throwing rituals in Mina).

Even after paying “quite a huge sum of money”, Hataman’s bill notes the Filipino pilgrims “were not provided with adequate hotel accommodations, often times cramming several persons in a small hotel room”.

(In this year’s pilgrimage, each pilgrim paid over Php300,000, covering Mutawiff and two-way plane fare.)

Still in the Explanatory Note, Hataman said his bill’s aim is to transfer the operation or administration of the pilgrimage to competent private individuals or organizations and “unburden the NCMF”.

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“The conduct, processing and facilitation of the hajj for Muslim Filipinos should be left to the competence of the private sector whose expertise and experiences in hajj would ensure that our pilgrims will be provided with best services. This bill  aims to do just that,” he says.

It would be interesting to see and observe public hearings for H.B. No. 9096, especially on whether who would be the personalities appearing as champions for erasing the NCMF’s powers and functions on pilgrimage, and who would come forward to support the status quo and oppose Hajj reforms as contemplated in the legislative measure.

The anticipation starts now. (✓)

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Editor’s Note: Senator Robinhood “Abdul Aziz” Padilla has filed Senate Bill (S.B.) No. 2452, also seeking to amend R.A. No. 9997 to ensure the success of the pilgrimage.