Officials: Proposed BARMM "Popcom" essential to peace, development programs
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 05:30 AM Sat Feb 4, 2023
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By:
John M. Unson
The Bangsamoro government center in Cotabato City. (John Unson)
COTABATO CITY - Stakeholders are optimistic of having a regional population commission soon via an act of the 80-member parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Members of the BARMM interim parliament filed last month, for subsequent deliberation, the Bill 110, an enabling measure for the setting up of the Bangsamoro Commission on Population Management and Development.
A member of the regional parliament, the physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., said Friday he is anticipating an “imprimatur” for Bill 110 from members of the 80-seat BARMM law-making body.
“The proposed commission is essential to the formulation of socio-economic programs needed to hasten the attainment of peace and sustainable development in all provinces and cities in BARMM,” Sinolinding said.
The BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi, mostly still reeling from the adverse effects of decades of secessionist strife.
Two other members of the BARMM parliament, the lawyers Suharto Ambolodto, a Maguindanaon, and Paisalin Tago, a Maranao, had separately assured of their support for the enactment into law of Bill 110.
“Such a commission can be a good partner of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in formulating policies pertaining to public welfare in line with the ministry’s functions and public service goals,” Tago said.
Tago, also a member of the BARMM parliament, is concurrent transportation and communications minister of BARMM.
The proposed regional population commission shall be attached to the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority, according to proponents.
It shall operate like the national government’s Population Commission, which is under the supervision of the National Economic Development Authority.
“Having that regional population commission can also make good the planning and implementation of the programs of the regional health ministry,” Sinolinding, former health secretary of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said.
Local executives in the Bangsamoro region favor the creation of the regional population commission via Bill 110.
“We want that created soon,” Mayor Marshall Sinsuat of Datu Blah Sinsuat said Friday.
The 45 barangay chairpersons in Lamitan City and their chief executive, Mayor Roderick Furigay, had also pledged support for the creation of the regional population commission.
“Proposals like that deserve our support,” Furigay said.