Senate to look into BARMM's low budget utilization

SENATE PRESIDENT Francis Escudero on Monday said the budget of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) would be scrutinized by senators in the coming 2025 budget plenary deliberations citing the entity’s low absorptive capacity.

"Kada budget tinitignan yan, yung absorptive capacity ng kada ahensiya. Kasi nga naman hindi ba medyo makapal ang mukha? Hihingi ng mas malaking budget next year pero hindi naman nila nagagalaw o nauubos yung budget nila sa kasalukuyang taon. Pangunahin na dyan ay ang BARMM (What we are looking into every budget is the absorptive capacity of every agency. Isn’t that quite shameless? They will ask for a bigger budget next year but they are not able to touch or utilize their budget for this year. BARMM is on top of them)," Escudero said.

The budget for the Bangsamoro region is being financed by the national government every year through an annual block grant, additional subsidies, and revenues generated from national taxes and charges within the Bangsamoro territorial jurisdiction.

For 2024, the national government’s allocation for BARMM was PHP70.5 billion for block grant, PHP5.08 billion as shares in the national taxes collected within the BARMM, and PHP5 billion for the Special Development Fund (SDF).

However, Escudero said the BARMM government has only utilized 40 to 50 percent of its 2024 budget.

"Kailangan naming malaman kung bakit nga ba yan ganyan, dahil kung ganyan kababa ang kanilang paggastos sayang ulit yung fiscal space na ibinibigay sa kanila (We need to know why that is the case because if their spending is so low, the fiscal space given to them will just be wasted),” he said.

"Hindi natin ibinababa o tinatanggal yung pondo, pero pwedeng gamitin muna sa iba dahil na nga rin na ayaw nating patuloy tumaas ang ating utang dahil lamang allocate tayo ng allocate dinedeposito lang pala nila sa bangko at hindi ginagastos (We are not decreasing or removing the fund, but it can be used for other purposes because we don't want our debt to increase just because we keep on allocating, only for them to just deposit it in the bank without spending it)," he added.

Meanwhile, the Senate President announced that he is set to file on Monday a bill seeking for the postponement of the BARMM elections after the Supreme Court ruled that Sulu is not part of the region.

He expects committee deliberations to start on Thursday. (Wilnard Bacelonia)