Congress OKs P40.5-B 2017 budget for ARMM

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Congress on Wednesday approved the P40.5 billion proposed 2017 budget for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) following deliberations made tense by a lawmaker whose father ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman defeated in the May 9 elections.

House Deputy Speaker Sandra Sema, whose district in Maguindanao is a component area of ARMM, said she even had to defer questions regarding four regional offices during the budget deliberations just to defuse the tension between solons and resource persons defending the requested budget, among them Hataman.

Tawi-Tawi Rep. Ruby Sahali captioned “all is well that ends well” her photo, along with senior ARMM officials, she posted on her Facebook timeline after the budget hearing.

ARMM officials were elated with the imprimatur the House of Representatives gave to the requested P40.5 billion budget for governance, peace and development efforts in the autonomous region next year.

A Tausug ARMM official told The STAR Thursday discussions on their proposed budget “turned inappropriately antagonistic” when Kusug Tausug Party-list Rep. Shernee Tan talked about “irregularities” in the handling in previous years by the regional government of funds from the national coffer.

Hataman defeated Tan’s father, Sakur, with over 400,000 votes during the ARMM gubernatorial race on May 9, 2016.

The older Tan had served as congressman and as three-term governor of Sulu, touted as the most dangerous province in the country.

Sulu, which has 18 towns, is known around the world as haven of the feared Abu Sayyaf, where grinding poverty is felt in all of its towns, including Jolo, the provincial capital.

The Abu Sayyaf, which boasts of its allegiance to the Independent State of Iraq and Syria, is feared for its practice of beheading captives, snatched from abroad and nearby Mindanao provinces, if ransom demands are not met.

Local officials in Sulu confirmed on Thursday it was only during the time of Hataman that infrastructure projects, such as seaports, concrete roads and water supply facilities, began to sprout around in the hostile and impoverished island province.

Two colleagues of Mindanao’s present top catholic leader, Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation, Sulu Bishop Benjamin de Jesus and Fr. Benjamin Inocencio, were shot dead one after another in downtown Jolo in 1997 and 2000, respectively.

The still unsolved gory deaths of De Jesus and Inocencio, in the hands of assassins, shook the nation to its core and saddened the local and international Catholic communities.

Tan, a neophyte lawmaker, talked about unfinished projects during the ARMM budget deliberations, according to regional officials.

Regional officials present in the budget hearing, among them residents of Sulu, said the projects Tan mentioned were not projects of the regional government.

Engineer Don Loong, ARMM’s public works secretary, on Thursday told The STAR they have enough documentation on the implementation of their infrastructure projects in all of the region’s five provinces, supported with aerial drone photos and video footage.

ARMM officials said lawyer Makmod Mending Jr., Anak Mindanao Party-list representative, had pointed out during the emotion-filled budget hearing that it was wrong to insinuate there was mishandling of state funds entrusted to the regional government owing to its having submitted its agencies to audit by state auditors.

Hataman had also urged Tan to have the handling of Sulu’s provincial coffer scrutinized by the Commission on Audit.

Tan’s brother, Sakur Jr., is the incumbent governor of Sulu. Their mother, Nurunisha, is the present vice governor of the province.

“I challenge the provincial government of Sulu to undergo same,” Hataman was quoted as saying by sources in Congress and ARMM officials who observed the budget hearing.

Tan also asked about unfinished school buildings that turned out as not projects of ARMM, but of the national government.

Sulu has the highest recorded poverty incidence from among ARMM provinces, which include Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.

The Local Government Code obliges local government units to provide fiscal support to programs for educational advancement of schooling constituents, to be drawn from the internal revenue allocations of each LGU.

Instead of compelling LGUs in Sulu, including its provincial government, to shell out funds for domestic peace, education, health and social welfare programs, the regional government takes the cudgel and extends such services for free to people in Sulu through the provincial offices of its agencies in the province.

Amir Mawallil, ARMM’s information director, told The STAR Thursday Hataman and members of the regional cabinet are now preparing to defend the regional government’s proposed 2017 budget at the Senate.