BARMM trade ministry embarks on quarantine-related activities
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 13:00 PM Tue Apr 14, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
COTABATO CITY --- The Bangsamoro trade ministry has earmarked P1.6 million for COVID-19 relief interventions.
In a statement Tuesday, the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said its provincial offices will facilitate the relief mission in support of efforts to ease the plight of BARMM constituents displaced by the coronavirus quarantine since March.
Abuamri Taddik, BARMM’s trade minister, was quoted in the statement as saying that they have also intensified their enforcement of the Fair Trade Laws amid the continuing quarantine lockdown in areas under its jurisdiction.
He said the ministry is also focused on easing the flow of commercial goods into BARMM and importations to ensure continuation of regional economic activities.
Taddik said the ministry is doing its best to complement the COVID-19 containment efforts of Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim and other ministries now in the forefront of addressing the health emergency in the region.
The Bangsamoro emergency response contingent READI under the office of Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo has been in the forefront of the regional government’s war on COVID-19.
The BARMM region covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the scattered island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Taddik said his office has augmented with a P50,000 allocation the monthly operating funds of each of their provincial offices to boost law-enforcement activities.
He urged BARMM residents to report overpricing by traders of merchandise while the region is under quarantine lockdown.
He said the MTIT, the police and military can jointly censure merchants taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to gain from either hoarding or overpricing of goods they peddle.
The MTIT also supports the “rolling store” program of the provincial government of Lanao del Sur and cooperating agencies that delivers commercial goods to far-flung barangays by ambulant traders on trucks.
The Lanao del Sur provincial government and different Maranaw business organizations were the first to embark together on the rolling store project from among BARMM's five constituent-provincial governments.