ARMM execs fear setbacks with budget cut

COTABATO CITY — The big cut in next year’s budget of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is feared to stifle efforts to address the region’s socio-economic and security problems and the rehabilitation of tens of thousands of Filipino deportees from Malaysia.

The ARMM covers Marawi City and the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan.

Sources from the Regional Planning and Development Office said the ARMM government, aware of the setbacks that beset the administration of former Gov. Nur Misuari due to lack of funds, asked for a P10-billion budget, but the Department of Budget and Management approved only half of it.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, ARMM trade and industry secretary, said the approved P5.5-billion budget is only about half of the appropriation for other administrative regions.

"There is an apparent imbalance here. The ARMM government is the machinery designed to liberate its constituent-communities from the bondage of underdevelopment. It needs all the support the national government can give so it can fully take off and foster peace and sustainable development in the region," Mastura told The STAR via mobile phone from Manila.

Mastura, one of the ARMM officials attending the ongoing deliberations on the regional budget in Congress, said the budgetary cut would adversely affect the delivery of basic services to far-flung communities throughout the region.

Sen. Robert Barbers has expressed disappointment over the reduced ARMM budget.

Barbers, chairman of the finance subcommittee hearing the proposed ARMM budget, questioned why the allocation was reduced to only P5.5 billion.

"President Arroyo is always saying that Mindanao is her priority but why is the ARMM budget very small?" he asked.

He, however, refused to give any commitment for a bigger ARMM budget, saying he would try his best.

Congress could not approve a national budget higher than what Malacañang has recommended; it could only cut the budget, but not increase it.