DAVAO CITY—Government personnel working in at least three agencies of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao were assured of being retained in the new Bangsamoro government that would replace the ARMM, a team from the national government said in a forum in Cotabato City last week.
The government team, which includes the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), identified the agencies as the Departments of Health, Education and Social Welfare.
The Coordination Team for Transition used the word “sector,” however, rather than department, and would cover a wider number from those working in the towns and barangays.
The forum on the transition process was intended to clarify the concern and issues, mainly on retention of ARMM employees to the new Bangsamoro ARMM, or BARMM. The BARMM would be established soon as provided for under Republic Act 11045, the bangsamoro organic law.
The ARMM Bureau of Public Information (BPI) said the forum discussed the employment status of ARMM personnel who would be affected once the transition period commences “and the incentives for personnel who would opt to retire, or be separated from service.”
The ARMM BPI dispatch said Commissioner Jose Lorena, a member of the transition team, explained that Article XVI Section 10 of the RA 11045 states that “officials holding appointive positions shall continue to perform their functions in accordance with the phase-out schedule.”
“Employees in the sectors of health, education and social welfare shall be absorbed and transferred to the Bangsamoro Government,” Lorena said, citing the provision.
He also mentioned the same provision that states “the affected personnel who will not be absorbed in the positions of the new staffing pattern of the different offices in the Bangsamoro Government, whether hired on permanent, temporary, casual, or contractual basis and with appointments attested by the Civil Service Commission, shall be entitled to the applicable retirement, or separation benefits as provided in the organic law.”
He said the transition team was currently preparing a draft plan on the schedule of the gradual phasing out of the offices of the ARMM. She said the draft would be submitted to the appointed chief minister of the new government.
The chief minister would review the plan and submit it to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority within 60 days. The BTA would then approve the proposed plan within 10 days.
“Assuming the ratification is done on January 21, 2019, perhaps, the schedule of phasing out would be April 2019,” Lorena said.
The transition team was also attended by lawyer Krunimar Escudero III of the CSC Central Office, GSIS Vice President for Visayas and Mindanao Vilma Fuentes, Pag-IBIG Vice President for Members Services Operations Rio Teves and Herman Jumilla, undersecretary for Mindanao concerns of the Department of Budget and Management.
The ARMM was established in 1989 under RA 6734, known as Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The ARMM has a population of 3.78 million, according to the 2015 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority. Of this number, 3.45 million are Muslims. The region is composed of the Central Mindanao provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and the latter’s capital of Marawi City, and the Southwestern Mindanao island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and Basilan’s Lamitan City.