Congress OKs P40.5B ARMM budget for 2017
COTABATO CITY — Congress on Wednesday approved the P40.5 billion proposed 2017 budget for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao following deliberations made tense by a lawmaker whose father ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman defeated in the May 9 elections.
House Deputy Speaker Sandra Sema, whose district in Maguindanao is a component area of ARMM, said she even had to defer questions regarding four regional offices during the budget deliberations just to defuse the tension between solons and resources persons defending the requested budget, among them Hataman.
Tawi-Tawi Representative Ruby Sahali captioned “all is well that ends well” her photo, along with senior ARMM officials, she posted on her Facebook timeline after the budget hearing.
ARMM officials were elated with the imprimatur the House of Representatives gave to the requested P40.5 billion budget for governance, peace and development efforts in the autonomous region next year.
A Tausug ARMM official told The STAR yesterday discussions on their proposed budget “turned inappropriately antagonistic” when Kusug Tausug party-list Rep. Shernee Tan talked about “irregu- larities” in the handling in previous years by the regional government of funds from the national coffer.
Hataman defeated Tan’s father, Sakur, with over 400,000 votes during the ARMM gubernatorial race on May 9, 2016. The older Tan had served as congressman and as three-term governor of Sulu, touted as the most dangerous province in the country.
Sulu, which has 18 towns, is known around the world as haven of the feared Abu Sayyaf, where grinding poverty is felt in all of its towns, including Jolo, the provincial capital.
Local officials in Sulu confirmed yesterday it was only during the time of Hataman that infrastructure projects, such as seaports, concrete roads and water supply facilities, began to sprout around in the hostile and impoverished island province.
Tan, a neophyte lawmaker, talked about unfinished projects during the ARMM budget deliberations, according to regional officials. Regional officials present in the budget hearing, among them residents of Sulu, said the projects Tan mentioned were not projects of the regional government.
Amir Mawallil, ARMM’s information director, told The STAR yesterday Hataman and members of the regional cabinet are now preparing to defend the regional government’s proposed 2017 budget at the Senate.