COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM said it released over P1.9 billion in response to the novel coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic, and the Office of Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim got a huge chunk of the funds.
According to the BARMM Bureau of Public Information or BPI, the funds - released on April 30 by the Ministry of Finance, and Budget and Management which Ebrahim also heads –were distributed to his own office and also the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government or MILG under Naguib Sinarimbo, and the Ministry of Social Services and Development or MSSD headed by Raissa Jajurie.
But only on May 7, BARMM Cabinet Secretary and Bangsamoro Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19 spokesperson, Mohd Asnin Pendatun, said the P1.9 billion is a combination of the regular and quick response funds. He further clarified that “it does not entail that these funds have already been completely disbursed or utilized.”
“Gusto lamang po nating i-emphasize na ‘yong P1.9B fund, hindi lahat ay na-disburse o nagamit na. Ibig sabihin lamang po nito ay maaaring gamitin ang funds na ito for Covid-19 related activities or programs,” Pendatun stressed.
The breakdown of the P1,918,782,295 were as follows: For Ebrahim’s office alone – TABANG Program P1 billion, Fund Augmentation for Social Services P200 million, Fund Augmentation to provincial and municipal governments P155 million, Procurement for Covid-19 related health supplies and material requirement P100 million, AMBAG Program P50 million, Isolation Buildings P50 million.
And for the MILG, P116.3 million for its READi (Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence) Program; and for MSSD another P116.3 million for its Emergency Assistance Program and P113.6 million for Welfare Goods.
It was not immediately known how much assistance really went to the provinces under BARMM – Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao – as there are no records on the BARMM portal or social media accounts.
But in Sulu, the provincial government only received P5 million and P1 million for each of 19 municipalities there – and this is part of the P155 million allocated for all 5 provinces and their municipal governments. And BARMM has nearly 4 million population and the funding released by Ebrahim was not even enough, according to local officials.
Despite the meager resources it got from BARMM, Sulu officials - from the provincial government down to the municipal executives – managed to feed nearly all residents since the health crisis began in March.
Social media accounts of provincial and municipal governments showed a unified efforts in the distribution of relief assistance to over 900,000 populations in Sulu.
Each household were provided multiple times with a sack of 50-kilo rice, canned goods and other grocery items while officials were busy fighting the spread of the deadly respiratory disease. Sulu only recorded one positive Covid-19 case because of its strict implementation of the quarantine guidelines in preventing the spread of the virus in the province.
However, the BARMM-BPI on May 14 quoted Sinarimbo as saying that based on the monitoring conducted by the MILG, the local governments in the Muslim region complied with their respective tasks upon receiving the augmentation fund from Ebrahim’s office.
Sinarimbo said the funds can only be used for the purchase of medical supplies and equipment, relief goods, and assistance for front liners and daily wage earners. He said all Covid-19 task forces of the 123 local governments in BARMM have been activated and that 2,590 Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams are functional, adding a total of 90 quarantine facilities are now available across the region.
BARMM-BPI also quoted Jajurie’s report that over 50% of the 505, 954 targeted beneficiaries in the region have already received their Social Amelioration Program or SAP. (Mindanao Examiner)
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| Chief Minister Ahod 'Murad' Ebrahim |
According to the BARMM Bureau of Public Information or BPI, the funds - released on April 30 by the Ministry of Finance, and Budget and Management which Ebrahim also heads –were distributed to his own office and also the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government or MILG under Naguib Sinarimbo, and the Ministry of Social Services and Development or MSSD headed by Raissa Jajurie.
But only on May 7, BARMM Cabinet Secretary and Bangsamoro Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19 spokesperson, Mohd Asnin Pendatun, said the P1.9 billion is a combination of the regular and quick response funds. He further clarified that “it does not entail that these funds have already been completely disbursed or utilized.”
“Gusto lamang po nating i-emphasize na ‘yong P1.9B fund, hindi lahat ay na-disburse o nagamit na. Ibig sabihin lamang po nito ay maaaring gamitin ang funds na ito for Covid-19 related activities or programs,” Pendatun stressed.
The breakdown of the P1,918,782,295 were as follows: For Ebrahim’s office alone – TABANG Program P1 billion, Fund Augmentation for Social Services P200 million, Fund Augmentation to provincial and municipal governments P155 million, Procurement for Covid-19 related health supplies and material requirement P100 million, AMBAG Program P50 million, Isolation Buildings P50 million.
And for the MILG, P116.3 million for its READi (Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence) Program; and for MSSD another P116.3 million for its Emergency Assistance Program and P113.6 million for Welfare Goods.
It was not immediately known how much assistance really went to the provinces under BARMM – Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao – as there are no records on the BARMM portal or social media accounts.
But in Sulu, the provincial government only received P5 million and P1 million for each of 19 municipalities there – and this is part of the P155 million allocated for all 5 provinces and their municipal governments. And BARMM has nearly 4 million population and the funding released by Ebrahim was not even enough, according to local officials.
Despite the meager resources it got from BARMM, Sulu officials - from the provincial government down to the municipal executives – managed to feed nearly all residents since the health crisis began in March.
Social media accounts of provincial and municipal governments showed a unified efforts in the distribution of relief assistance to over 900,000 populations in Sulu.
Each household were provided multiple times with a sack of 50-kilo rice, canned goods and other grocery items while officials were busy fighting the spread of the deadly respiratory disease. Sulu only recorded one positive Covid-19 case because of its strict implementation of the quarantine guidelines in preventing the spread of the virus in the province.
However, the BARMM-BPI on May 14 quoted Sinarimbo as saying that based on the monitoring conducted by the MILG, the local governments in the Muslim region complied with their respective tasks upon receiving the augmentation fund from Ebrahim’s office.
Sinarimbo said the funds can only be used for the purchase of medical supplies and equipment, relief goods, and assistance for front liners and daily wage earners. He said all Covid-19 task forces of the 123 local governments in BARMM have been activated and that 2,590 Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams are functional, adding a total of 90 quarantine facilities are now available across the region.
BARMM-BPI also quoted Jajurie’s report that over 50% of the 505, 954 targeted beneficiaries in the region have already received their Social Amelioration Program or SAP. (Mindanao Examiner)
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