Press Release
June 3, 2015

Senator Marcos: Failures in ARRM will be used as guides to improve BBL

SENATOR Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos, chair of the Senate Committee on Local Government that is scrutinizing the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), has beefed up his references for rectifying errors in the draft bill.

This developed on Wednesday during the hearing of the panel on the BBL as Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) narrated the shortcomings in terms of the relation between the national government and the current autonomous region, which he said should be rectified under the BBL.

"The experience of the Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman is of course invaluable to guide us on the improvements that we need to implement to rectify what has been constantly described as a failed experiment of ARMM," Marcos said.

Hataman said one of the problems of the ARMM is the devolution of line agencies to the ARRM while the program funds are not.

"Lahat ng program funds ng agencies na na-devolved sa ARMM ay hindi hawak ng ARMM, ito ay hawak ng national line agencies... Lahat ng programa hawak pa rin ng line agencies," he said.

He said in the case of the Department of Education (DepEd) alone, more programs are being enjoyed by school children outside the ARMM.

"Halimbawa sa DepEd, 23 ang PAPS (Program Activities and Projects) nila pero pgdating sa ARMM, 9 lang. Ibig sabihin, mayroon 14 na proyekto na pinapakinabangan ng mga bata sa labas ng ARMM na hindi pinapakinabangan ng mga bata sa loob ng ARRM," Hataman said.

While expressing support to the BBL, he asked Marcos that this kind of structure should be underscored while the BBL is being scrutinized and studied by the committee.

Wednesday's hearing was dedicated to local government officials, mostly in provinces in Mindanao that will be directly or indirectly affected by the BBL.

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