ARMM emergency response unit in limbo

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  —  Uncertainty hounds the contingent that served five million people in disaster and conflict response operations while under the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Personnel of the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) yesterday held what was for them their last staff meeting.

They are unsure if the regional parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will retain their multi-awarded humanitarian outfit.

The HEART, established in 2013 by then ARMM governor Mujiv Hataman, is comprised of rescuers and medical responders trained to serve even in extremely hostile and uncontrolled environments.

Many HEART workers also underwent extensive schooling on offshore rescue operations in the special military training school of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, the largest military unit in central Mindanao.

HEART information officer Myrna Jocelyn Henry said they are now ready to turn over their office and well documented equipment outlay to BARMM’s chief minister, Hadji Murad Ebrahim.

Ebrahim, chairman of the central committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is the appointed head of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) that would manage the BARMM pending the election of its first set of officials in 2022.

Hataman turned over to Ebrahim the ARMM government last Tuesday to pave the way for its replacement with an MILF-led BARMM.

HEART personnel said they are still waiting for a written memorandum from Ebrahim on whether to move out or stay for possible retention.

“We have prepared for this. Our former regional governor, Mujiv Hataman, supported the creation of BARMM so we also voted for the ratification of the law that created it, the Bangsamoro Organic Law,” said a Moro rescuer.

Hataman said he is hoping the BTA will retain the HEART.

“These workers have proven their dedication to serve even in difficult situations. Their trainings and field work experience would just go to waste. Just the same, it’s really up to the BTA, whose governance initiatives I shall support to the best I can,” Hataman said.

Besides having provided residents of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi with relief services over the past five years, the HEART also aided evacuees from villages in Tacloban and Leyte in the Visayas that were hit by a powerful storm more than two years ago.