Passage of BARMM Local Governance Code Hailed

COTABATO CITY – Regional lawmakers approved on Thursday the Bangsamoro Local Governance Code, a product of a tedious three-year multi-sector initiative that also involved supportive professionals outside of the autonomous region.

The BLGC was immediately signed into law by the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Ahod Ebrahim, and lawyer Pangalian Balindong, the speaker of the 80-member regional parliament.

“The BLGC is a revolutionary legislation because it redefines the relationship between the BARMM and the political subdivisions under it,” a member of the parliament, lawyer Suharto Ambolodto, said.

“It will empower the LGUs as first responders, and as service front liners,” he added.

Ebrahim, who also chairs the central committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the code will empower local government units in BARMM via the decentralization of functions essential to enhance the basic services for constituent- communities.

There are also provisions in the BLGC addressing political dynasties and the monopoly of candidacy for elective posts by powerful traditional clans, two serious issues plaguing the autonomous region. The practice condons the employment of private armed groups by big Moro clans to maintain power.

The physician in the BARMM parliament, Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., told reporters he willingly voted, during Thursday’s session, for the approval of the local governance code on the third and final reading.

Sinolinding, Jr. said he was fully backing the measure specifically its provision to provide comprehensive health services to the Moro and non-Moro constituents in the BARMM.

“That is something so good. Our regional government and the LGUs in BARMM will surely work hard together to achieve that goal,” said Sinolinding.

Before becoming a member of the parliament, the eye doctor started as a “doctor to the barrio” and had served as regional health secretary of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The BARMM – covering the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, and Cotabato – replaced the 29-year ARMM in 2019 as a result of 22 years of peace talks between Malacanang and the MILF.

The Maranaw lawyer and accountant Paisalin Tago, transportation and communications minister of BARMM and member of the parliament, said he was elated with the approval of the BLGC.

Tago said the local governance code will strengthen the LGUs in his province, Lanao del Sur, now bouncing back from the effects of armed conflicts for decades.

“The BGLC is a law for regional application that was painstakingly crafted with inputs from resource persons, representatives from the Moro nobility, from religious leaders and local executives, and other sectors in the autonomous region,” Tago said. (John Felix Unson)

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