DAVAO CITY—A Bangsamoro lawmaker from the country’s farthest southern island province of Tawi-Tawi refiled or reintroduced six bills in its Parliament to “expand and improve the region’s airport and terminal building infrastructure, promote clean water, make dialysis treatment available at no cost to indigent patients and memorialize the core members of the Moro National Liberation Front.”
Member of Parliament Amilbahar Mawallil said he also reintroduced the bills to declare the Balobok cave in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi a regional heritage zone and to establish a Seaweed Industry Development Authority.
He said the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Bill No. 85, or the BARMM Airport Terminal Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2022, would seek to modernize and develop all airport terminal building facilities in the Bangsamoro region.
Once approved, the respective airport operators must submit a master plan for the long-term development of all airport passenger terminal infrastructure and facilities within BARMM to support the modernization of existing airport facilities.
“This bill seeks to ensure an integrated manner of operating regional airport terminals and to avoid conflicting policies and programs on
airport maintenance, operation, and development,” Mawallil said.
Another bill on establishing the Seaweed Industry Development Authority would seek to develop an integrated development framework
for the region’s seaweed industry.
The Bangsamoro government “must be able to manage and improve seaweed culture and wild harvest techniques and output so that the relevant socioeconomic benefits are “not lost and that the quality of the fresh or processed seaweed is maintained.”
BTA Bill No. 87, or the Balobok Cave Preservation Act of 2022, would like to declare the Balobok Cave, located in Barangay Lakit-Lakit, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, as a regional heritage zone.
“This is to preserve, protect, promote, and develop the cave, as it is
found to be one of the earliest human settlements in Southeast Asia, dating back to 8,000 years ago,” he said.
A regional heritage zone refers to historical, anthropological, archeological, and artistic geographic areas that are culturally significant to the Bangsamoro region, he added.
The BTA Bill No. 89, also known as the Safe Drinking Water Act of 2022, would urge the Bangsamoro government to develop an effective water quality management system aimed at protecting human health, preventing drinking water health hazards, and protecting, preserving, and reviving the region’s fresh, brackish, and marine waters.
In reintroducing BTA Bill No. 88, the BARMM Dialysis Center Act of 2022, Mawallil said this would require all public hospitals in the region to establish dialysis units which have “enough machines, equipment, paraphernalia, and supplies, as well as sufficient medical and other personnel, such as nephrologists, dialysis nurses, dialysis technicians, and operating room nurses, for both peritoneal and hemodialysis.”
“The Ministry of Health must ensure that indigent patients, as identified by the Ministry of Social Services and Development, receive free dialysis treatments in all regional government hospitals,” he said in the bill.
Among his reintroduced bills was Parliament Bill No. 84, to grant a mandate on the Bangsamoro Commission for the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage (BCPCH) “to produce and publish the official names
of the MNLF’s Top 90 and Top 300 core members.”
In filing it, Mawallil said it would memorialize the MNLF core members in a regional monument “to honor the ideals and bravery shown by the core members who fought for the Bangsamoro struggle.”
He said the top 90 were composed of different ethnolinguistic groups of the region “who questioned the sociopolitical landscape in Mindanao and aimed to fight social injustices towards the Bangsamoro people.”
“The top 90 and top 300 core members, the unsung champions of the Bangsamoro struggle, should be given proper recognition for the bravery they have manifested in continuously fighting for our rights,” said Mawallil.