Bangsamoro transition officials, staff unpaid for months now, says member

The 80 members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority and their respective staff have received no salaries since the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was established four months ago.

Lawyer Laisa Masuhud Alamia, a member of the BTA, said the transition panel remained largely unfunded.

“I cannot say how much talaga ang amount… pero ‘yung salaries, wala. We also don’t have any physical office yet, all of us [BTA members] We are just using the Sharif Kabunsuan Cultural Center for our plenary sessions,” Alamia said.

Alamia said the BTA had been making do with the leftover budget of the abolished ARMM’s Regional Legislative Assembly.

She said it wouldn't be enough to cover the salaries of the BTA members and their staff, and the conduct of workshops and other meetings for parliament work.

“That budget from the Regional Legislative Assembly] has no budget for personnel services and capital outlay. We have been spending from our personal money, including our staff,” Alamia said.

Alamia then said that the BTA was hoping that the President would take action on this matter at the soonest possible time.

The ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in February paved the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and abolished the old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The BARMM includes Cotabato City, 63 barangays in the municipalities of  Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pigkawayan and Pikit in North Cotabato. It has expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, increased share in national government resources, among others.

“The ARMM budget in 2019 has been transferred to BARMM, but that budget is under the jurisdiction of the Chief Minister, and as such should only be utilized on the programs made by the Executive branch," Alamia said.

"We, the BTA working as a parliament, we don’t have a budget yet,” she added.

“We’re told by the [Department of Budget and Management] that it will come from the contingent fund under the jurisdiction of the Office of the President…the release of it is subject to his approval," Alamia said.

"When we were appointed as BTA members in February 2019, supposedly it should have been processed and downloaded immediately shortly after that,” she added. —NB, GMA News