BARMM allocates P274 million for labor sector

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro government has allocated P274 million for the 2021 operation of its labor ministry, P81 million higher than its P193 million budget last year.

Romeo Sema, labor minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Thursday he and his subordinate-employees can together comprehensively expand this year their programs intended to empower the labor sector in all five BARMM provinces.

The now 25-month BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Marawi, Lamitan and Cotabato.

“We are grateful to BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim and all members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, functioning as the interim parliament of the Bangsamoro region, for this 2021 budget grant for our ministry,” Sema said.

He said the Ministry of Labor and Employment-BARMM will continue with its Community Emergency Employment Program that helped thousands who got displaced by the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.

Sema said the MOLE-BARMM shall also embark on a new project, the Bangsamoro Entrepreneurs Program, or BEP, for the region’s entrepreneurial communities.

He said they shall continue this year their Sagip Batang Manggagawa Program, the Hanapbuhay for Bangsamoro Balik Manggagawa, the Government Internship Program, the Special Program for the Employment of Students, the COVID-19 Assistance Program and the Bangsamoro Assistance for Science Education Program.

“All of these are in line with the efforts of the office of the Bangsamoro chief minister to improve the condition of stakeholders, particularly those affected by conflicts and whose lives were made problematic by the coronavirus pandemic,” Sema said.

He said the MOLE-BARMM’s office in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro region, has actively been reaching out to the local labor sector since the regional government took over last month the operations of the Department of Labor and Employment-12 in the area.

The MOLE-BARMM now has a satellite office in Zamboanga City.

Zamboanga City is under Region 9 but is the gateway, or transshipment point to the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.