Year 2023: 0racle for BARMM

The new year fell on a Sunday. I wanted to play golf but the golf course was closed. Instead of Netflix-bingeing, I opted to consult the “Oracle of Delphi.” What is in store for the Muslim Autonomous Region for the year 2023? The following are the conjectures I got from the seer which toyed on my mind. As a caveat, these are all Nostradamus-like predictions that may or may not happen. It is dependent on the interplay of a myriad of factors. This guesswork is, however, a product of our critical observation of past events. Readers have to take it with a grain of salt.

The start of last year saw uncertainty and anxiety among administrators and residents of BARMM. Two questions occupied their minds — will their bid for the extension of their term of office by skirting the impending parliamentary election find support from then-President Digong and Congress? How will the new President deal with BARMM, will he be sympathetic to them?

Luckily these questions drew a positive response. The President and Congress passed the law postponing the regional parliamentary elections which effectively extended the tenure of members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, the interim government. And newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed/reappointed the new members of the BTA capped with his historic visit to the BARMM manifesting, in no uncertain term, his support for them.

I foresee that there will be not much distraction in the operation of the autonomous government. Gadflies have probably exhausted their arsenal of disparagement in the past years and any criticism will be effete. However, grumbling about inequitable distribution of favor to major tribes will persist but in lower decibels. Maguindanaons will still lord it over. There will still be muted complaints from non-Moro Islamic Liberation Front members of the BTA, the interim government, about their being treated as second class. The BARMM leadership has consolidated likewise its power having weathered the storm of agitation by a few members of the MILF with a threat of organizing the “Salamat Wing” due to their non-appointment to the BTA.

Many see an improvement in peace in the region for the new year.

For one, the dreaded Abu

Sayaff Group has been defanged with their commanders either growing old, tired, or having lost the moral support of Maas Nur Misuari with the latter’s unification with the MILF and other rebel factions after the appointment to the BTA of their recommendees (mostly their children). Most ASG leaders either died or were captured.

The present leadership of BARMM appears to have likewise addressed effectively the grievance of their breakaway fighters, who formed the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. For a while, they threatened the fragile peace in the area.

A brewing “rido” or family feud involving the big Mangudadatu clan is a possible flash point that can disturb the peace. Towards the end of the year, a son of patriarch Datu Pax Mangudadatu and half-brother of emerging political titan Suharto Teng Mangudadatu, was slain giving rise to a premonition of bloody vendetta.

Other concerns in the BARMM area which are not addressed effectively could be a source of a social problem.

While the Compensation Bill for the Marawi siege victims has been enacted into law, its implementation remains in limbo. Its funding is still uncertain. The 2023 General Appropriation law has allegedly allocated 1 billion to initialize the program, but it cannot take off without first organizing the Compensation Board which the law created to manage the reparation process.

The local governments of Marawi City and Lanao del Sur have drafted Internal Rules and Regulations for consideration by the Office of the President but as of this writing, it has not been acted upon. This will prolong the agony of the victims languishing in the government’s temporary make-shift shelters.

Again, these are mere predictions.

To my readers: Amon Jaded or

Happy new year!

“The present leadership of BARMM appears to have likewise addressed effectively the grievance of their breakaway fighters.

“While the Compensation Bill for the Marawi siege victims has been enacted into law, its implementation remains in limbo. Its funding is still uncertain.