Cotabato villages have edge of support direct from BARMM—CM Ebrahim

Cotabato villages have edge of support direct from BARMM—Ibrahim

By Nash B. Maulana

WHAT used to be “isolated” barangays that voted to join the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2019 are now in a better position receiving support directly from the source, BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ibrahim said.

At the ceremonial turnover of farm machineries Monday (today), Ibrahim told famer-recipients that they were in more “advantageous” situation receiving aid directly from the BARMM government, than they would have been under provincial or municipal local government units (LGUs).

Ibrahim said BARMM has allocated P 5 billion for a Special Development Fund (SDF) in its annual budget, with which the regional government procured the tractor units and trailer-discs mechanized plow, harvesters and transplanting equipment for the recipient farming communities of Midsayap Municipal Cluster I and I in Cotabato Province.

BARMM Interior and Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo said the two clusters of the Special Geographic Area (SGA) in Midsayap, Cotabato received eight small farm tractors equipped with trailer-discs, as well as five harvesters and transplanting machineries, and 300 bancas with fishing implements.
 

Ibrahim had also sworn into office Abunawas “Von Al-Haq” Maslamama, as his newly appointed BARMM senior minister.  

Sinarimbo said the Bangsamoro Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) Program manages part of the SDF resources from the BARMM Office of the Chief Minister to boost for the local governance the community-based agriculture and fishery production, in order to effectively generate and improve family-income and human resource-based revenues.

The BIRD, he said, has established a solar energy-powered ice-making facility in Barangay Lower Bager in the Pigcawayan town cluster of the BARMM SGA in Cotabato Province.

Ibrahim said the Bangsamoro Government envisioned the creation of provincial or municipal LGUs out of the SGA villages and to handle BARMM communities outside its core territory. However, that would require a long tract of legal and legislative process, Ibrahim said.

In effect, BIRD fills in for the temporary organizational gaps in SGA barangay communities in the absence of LGU setup levels, said Jayton Abas, local government operations officer for the BARMM SGA.

“We have formulated a manual of operations on the proper utilization of these agriculture equipment and fishery implements and facilities, to show to BARMM that we know how to put these resources to good use,” said Fatima Mokamad, president of the community Cluster I of SGA barangays in Midsayap town in Cotabato Province.