Bangsamoro government transition plan done

COTABATO CITY -- Experts are done drafting a comprehensive transition plan for the gradual shift from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to the fledgling Bangsamoro government.

Abdullah Cusain, deputy executive secretary of Chief Minister Hadji Ahod Ebrahim of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Tuesday they are expecting the interim Coordinating Team for Transition, most known as the CT4T, to turn over this week the transition plan to the BARMM leadership.

The CT4T is comprised of government planners, governance experts and accountants and representatives from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, among them lawyers.

“This transition plan is for consideration of the chief minister,” said Cusain, who is Ebrahim’s designated spokesman.

The creation of BARMM that replaced the 29-year ARMM was premised on two compacts between Malacañang and the MILF --- the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

The ARMM was replaced with BARMM after its charter, the Republic Act 11054, was ratified via a plebiscite that the Commission on Elections administered on January 21 in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and in the cities of Cotabato and Isabela under Regions 12 and 9, respectively.

Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi originally belonged to ARMM, whose charter, RA 9054, got superseded with the ratification of RA 11054, also known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

Former ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, who was elected congressional representative of Basilan last May 13, turned over his office to Ebrahim last February in an event that marked BARMM’s takeoff.

The BARMM is a product of 22 years of peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF.

Cusain said the transition plan the CT4T drafted shall hasten the full activation of the newly-created BARMM.