SEN. Juan Edgardo Angara has assured the inclusion of a P30-billion allocation in the P3.7-trillion national budget of 2019 for the Bangsamoro region. This will serve as “seed funding” for development projects and rehabilitation of areas ravaged by conflict in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
In a statement over the weekend, Angara said the early enactment into law of the annual money measure setting aside multibillion development funding for the strife-torn ARMM should speed up recovery efforts in the region.
The senator clarified that under the law, the BARMM government will be given a 5-percent annual block grant from the national government, to be automatically appropriated in the national budget. In the first year following the effectivity of the Bangsamoro law, the block grant should be 5 percent of the net national internal revenue tax collection and the net collection of the Bureau of Customs in the last three fiscal years.
The said immediate implementation and completion of crucial projects in conflict-hit areas need to be fast-tracked to enable residents and traders in affected areas to benefits from the already delayed government projects.
Angara recalled that the P30-billion funding was initially allocated for the previous Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but would now be transferred as 2019 operational funds of the BARMM, which replaced ARMM.
According to Angara, “this is in fulfilment of the promise to give the Bangsamoro government full fiscal autonomy to achieve economic self-sufficiency and genuine development.”
Angara added: “With this spending package, we pin our hopes on the leaders of the new autonomous political entity to change the lives of our Mindanaoan brothers and sisters who equally deserve opportunities to be employed, educated and cared for by the government.”
At the same time, the reelectionist senator acknowledged the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) as the “realization of the long peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front [that] was overwhelmingly ratified by the Bangsamoro people during a two-part plebiscite held early this year.”
President Duterte formed in February the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority to serve as the interim government in the BARMM during the transition period that will last until the first election takes place in 2022.
Angara said population in the region in 2015 stood at 3.78 million, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, which noted that one in two persons in the region was poor, or about 53.7 percent of its population.
The senator said the solution “should ultimately rest on giving the Bangsamoro people [the chance] to make their own choices—the political and fiscal autonomy to no longer consult with imperial Manila or the central government on matters that are essentially Bangsamoro matter.”
Under the BOL, revenue sources for the Bangsamoro include taxes, fees, charges and annual block grant, and revenue shares from exploration of natural resources, among others. Angara said the law provides that 75 percent of national taxes and fees collected in the region will go to the Bangsamoro government, while 25 percent will go to the national government. The 75-percent share shall “accrue” to the Bangsamoro government for the first 10 years.