COTABATO CITY, Aug. 26 — Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Executive Secretary Atty. Laisa Masuhud Alamia commended the Senate for finally starting the much-anticipated plenary debates on the Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR).
At the same time, ARMM officials appealed to senators to keep into consideration the original Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) draft when they review the bill’s version they are debating on the Senate floor.
“The public, especially the people in the ARMM, have been waiting for the Senate to tackle on the floor the BBL. We are happy that they finally proceeded yesterday and we anticipate dynamic and meaningful debates in the coming days,” said Alamia.
The BLBAR is the BBL version drafted by the Senate committee on local government headed by Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who took on the responsibility of defending the bill against the inquiries of his fellow Senators.
Alamia also expressed hope that the Senate plenary deliberation would include a revisit of the deleted and altered provisions from the original draft BBL.
“Despite our opposing views on certain matters in the BBL, we respect Senator Marcos for having worked so hard on this legislative measure. We just hope that he and all the other Senators will take into consideration the letter and spirit of the original draft in relation to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” Alamia added
Alamia said they fear that a weakened or diluted bill will allow the problems of the current autonomous region to foster and transfer to the Bangsamoro.
“We don’t want that to happen because our people have suffered so much for so long,” she said.
Senator Pia Cayetano was the first to question the BLBAR, focusing her queries on the annual block grant and the various taxation mechanisms being proposed for the regional government.
Meanwhile, Senator Ralph Recto said that the autonomous region must take charge of collecting national taxes, retain its share, and then remit national government share to the national treasury, instead of the other way around.
Alamia welcomed the suggestion, commenting that a strong fiscal autonomy was vital if senators were serious in establishing a regional government that was in accordance with the mandates of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
“Political autonomy would be meaningless if fiscal autonomy is not ensured. If you read the legislative powers being ensured by the Constitution for autonomous regions, fiscal autonomy is clearly implied. We don’t want the Bangsamoro experiencing an unsound fiscal arrangement with the government such as what the ARMM has been experiencing,” she said
The ARMM budget is part of the annual General Appropriations Act (ACT) that needs to be defended each year.
The annual block grant in the Bangsamoro bill, meanwhile, sets the budget of the regional government based on a formula that will free its would-be leaders from facing Congress each year.
“With the automatic appropriation, you’ll know more or less how much you’ll have for a fiscal year and that has significant positive impact on public administration,” explained Alamia.
Section 20 of Article X of the 1987 Philippine Constitution lists the legislative powers an organic act, such as the BBL and the BLBAR, can grant to an autonomous region. Some of those include the creation of sources of revenues and economic development. (PPMB)
