Hataman urges funding for Sulu in 2025 budget after exclusion from BARMM

The proposed P6.325-trillion budget for 2025 should include a provision that the national government provide funding for Sulu, after the Supreme Court decision that excluded the province from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, House Deputy Minority Leader Mujiv Hataman of Basilan said Monday. 

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Bangsamoro Organic law, which established the BARMM, is legal. The same SC decision, however, declared that Sulu is not part of the BARMM since the majority of Sulu voters voted no on the plebiscite for the ratification of the BOL in 2019.

“With recent ruling of the Supreme Court, definitely, the responsibility to provide a budget for Sulu will revert back to the national government. What is the plan of the government here?” Hataman said during the House plenary deliberations on the proposed P29-billion budget of the Department of Finance (DOF) for 2025.

“The block grant has a specific provision. The block grant is not based on territorial [coverage of the BARMM]. The block grant is fixed at 5%. The law says it can be reviewed, but the 5% is fixed. And so we all know that this [responsibility to fund Sulu] now falls on the national government,” Hataman added.

Hataman was referring to Article 12 Sections 16 to 18 of the BOL which state that the BARMM will be entitled to an annual block grant, to be sourced from the 5% of the net national internal revenue tax collection of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the net collection of the Bureau of Customs.

Moreover, the BOL provides that the block grant is under the national budget's Automatic Appropriations, meaning it will be released directly to the Bangsamoro government without need of any further action, and will not be subjected to any holdback.

Sultan Kudarat Representative Horacio Suansing, Jr., the designated sponsor of the Department of Finance’s proposed P29-billion budget for 2025, replied, “Maybe the salaries of the 7,000 additional employees will be from the contingency fund of the government.”

Hataman, however, said that the budget for the Sulu provincial government cannot depend on a "maybe" and said various government agencies providing crucial government services should consider including Sulu in the respective proposed budget for 2025.

“For example, the Department of Education did not consider the impact of the Supreme Court decision on Sulu for its 2025 budget. The Health department is in the same boat, because the health services in Sulu have been devolved to the BARMM,” he said.

“So this responsibility will really revert to the national government. We need to consider this before we pass the 2025 budget because there are at least a million people in Sulu. We need to talk about this now rather than depend on the contingent fund to ensure that there will be no disruption on the delivery of government services in Sulu,” Hataman added.

Suansing backed Hataman.

“Congressman Hataman is right. We need to resolve this so we can figure out fund sources for Sulu,” he said. — BM, GMA Integrated News