DAVAO CITY—Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) submitted to Parliament on Monday the proposed P85.3 billion budget of the region for fiscal year 2023 with social services getting the biggest chunk.
The biggest chunk of the budget was allotted for the social services sector at P36.9 billion. Ebrahim said the Bangsamoro Government highly prioritizes programs on education, culture, and manpower development; subsidy to local government units (LGUs); social security, welfare and employment; and health.
General public services sector got the second biggest portion of the budget with P28.2 billion. This sector includes efforts in ensuring public order and safety, including law enforcement, maintenance of public order, and political administration; and general administration, such as general government, fiscal affairs, civil service, and lawmaking functions.
Another P19.9 billion was allocated for the economic services sector. Ebrahim said the sector aims to fund interventions on communications, roads, and transportation facilities; agriculture, agrarian reform and natural resources; water resources development and flood control; trade and industry; power and energy; and tourism.
The peace and stability sector was allotted P250 million. “As enablers of socioeconomic development, the peace and stability sector focuses its efforts on promoting peaceful and inclusive Bangsamoro society for sustainable development with access to justice and build effective and accountable institutions,” Ebrahim said.
He said the proposed budget “will hopefully bring us to that point in the future, when connected from this point where we are now, will draw a line of sustained progress.”
“This plan will hopefully transform the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region to become a better environment for our people who shall enjoy the benefits of a better economy,” he said in a statement posted by the Bangsamoro Information Office on Tuesday.
Ebrahim appealed to colleagues in the Bangsamoro Parliament, officially called the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, to work together to make sure that their plans were “concretely expressed in the proposed budget.”
“With your support, together we shall be able to unite to build a strong and dedicated Bangsamoro Government that will fulfill the promises of peace, development and meaningful self-governance for the betterment of lives of our people, In shaa Allah,” he said.
Before Ebrahim filed the proposed budget to the Parliament, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Management (MFBM) held a series of extensive budget hearings where all Barmm ministries and offices were required to present and defend their budget proposals that were anchored on Barmm’s development agenda.
The BTA was reconstituted last month after Malacañang approved the request of the Bangsamoro government to grant it an extension of three years when the transition period lapsed this year. The Barmm was given only three years beginning in 2019 to implement the transition from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the Barmm. The latter was one of the concessions granted to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to govern the autonomy for Filipino Muslims in Mindanao in exchange for signing a peace settlement with government.
The region is composed of the mainland provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao and the southwestern island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed the approval of the extended transition period, from 2022 to 2025. His successor, Pesident Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., installed the new set of appointees to the BTA.
Finance Minister Ubaida Pacasem said the new set of leaders would build on the progress made by the Bangsamoro Government in establishing or reforming institutions “that are able to provide security and social services, and pursue collective goals of enduring peace, justice, and development.”