COTABATO CITY – Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) lauded on Friday the approval by the House of Representatives (HoR) of its PHP32-billion budget proposal for the year 2019.
The 2019 ARMM budget is deemed the last for the region prior to its anticipated transition to the new, expanded Bangsamoro political entity next year.
On Thursday, the HoR approved without any interpellation at the plenary the region’s proposed budget for next year. Prior to the HoR’s approval of the budget, the Senate’s Committee on Finance also okayed on its level the region’s financial proposal on Tuesday.
“We’re very happy that the ARMM-proposed budget for 2019 was approved immediately, as we also look forward that the budget will be utilized properly and implemented by the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM),” ARMM Executive Secretary Laisa Masuhud-Alamia said in a statement.
House lawmakers reportedly dispensed with the usual committee-level discussions due to the body’s ‘strong support’ for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
“(This) is a historic event for the ARMM because since then, they regularly come to the House to defend and propose their budget,” Lanao del Norte 1st District Representative Khalid Dimaporo, chair of the HoR subcommittee on appropriations, was quoted as saying in the same statement.
Dimaporo said with the passage of the BOL, the presented budget is expected to be turned over to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.
“With the passage of the BOL, we will have to wind up with the ARMM just to make sure that the BARMM would have something to start with by January 2019,” Alamia said.
Alamia also clarified the observation raised by Kusug Tausug party-list Representative Shernee Abubakar Tan that there were documents ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman failed to submit during the 2017 budget hearing.
Alamia said all of the documents that Tan mentioned were submitted last year before the Senate and HoR committees.
“If those documents were not submitted, the 2018 budget of ARMM would not have been approved,” Alamia said.
Anak Mindanao party-list Representative Amihilda Sangcopan, for her part, paid tribute to the ARMM as her ‘second family’, particularly to the Hataman people, for serving well the region.
“It is because of the genuine services, support and concern the Hataman team, among others, had for the Bangsamoro that the BOL has been passed into law,” Sangcopan, who served in previous years as Department of Agrarian Reform-ARMM secretary, said.
The proposed PHP32.285-billion regional budget for 2019 is allotted for personal services, including retirement and life insurance premiums (PHP14.6-B); capital outlay (PHP13-B); and maintenance and other operating expenses (PHP4.6-B). (Noel Punzalan/PNA)
