ARMM's `Little Malacañang' now has international service quality manual

COTABATO CITY -Who says the Bangsamoro know nothing about good governance?This was the question raised Tuesday by Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao after signing the Quality Management Systems (QMS) manual for the executive department of ARMM.The manual was drafted with the help of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) and researchers from different ARMM offices and civil society blocs helping improve the public administration capability of the regional government.The symbolic approval of the QMS manual for the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG), held at the Bajau Hall of the Bangsamoro Office in Cotabato City, is necessary to achieve an International Organization for Standardization certificate for Hataman’s office.The ORG, known as the Little Malacañang” of the autonomous region, wields ministerial control over some 40 line agencies and support offices devolved by the national government based on ARMM's old charter, the Republic Act 6734, and its amended version, R.A. 9054, which was enacted into law and ratified via a plebiscite in 2001. The Development Academy of the Philippines is honored to be a part of this improvement process. The DAP and the ORG are partners in furthering good governance and we are so excited about this ISO certification,” said Evangeline Macariola director of the academy’s Service Quality Division.Hataman and his subordinate-officials, Norkhalila Mae Mambuay, who is ARMM’s cabinet secretary, Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia and ORG’s chief-of-staff Ras Mitmug signed the QMS manual in the presence of representatives from different regional offices and reporters. This QMS manual shall be our legacy to the Bangsamoro people,” Hataman said.He said the global service quality policy the ORG is introducing into its divisions is meant to ensure efficiency in serving the ARMM constituency --- the Moro, Christian and lumad communities in the region’s five component provinces.The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, provincial capital of Basilan, said he was elated learning that the ORG now has a QMS manual.Furigay said he is confident the ORG can secure an ISO certificate by September 2015 as targeted. We have been witnessing dramatic improvements, remarkable improvements since 2012 in the regional government’s implementation of infrastructure projects and delivery of health, education and social welfare services to far-flung areas,” Furigay said.Hataman said the seemingly imminent grant of an ISO certificate to the ORG will prove that it has an extensive capability to govern, contrary to assertions by people opposed to the enactment into law of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is pending in Congress.The bill aims to replace the ARMM with a more administratively and politically empowered Bangsamoro entity, based on the March 27, 2014 final peace compact between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, dubbed Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.Hataman said he and his subordinate regional officials are ready to cooperate in the transition, from ARMM to an MILF-led Bangsamoro government, immediately after the draft BBL is approved and ratified via a plebiscite in its proposed territory.