ARMM set to celebrate 24th anniversary

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- The executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will start its celebration of the ARMM’s 24th anniversary Thursday with activities highlighting the rich culture and traditions of the local communities.

The ARMM was created through a plebiscite in 1989, which resulted in the ratification of its first ever charter, the Republic Act 6734, which grouped together Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in Central Mindanao, and the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, as its territory.

Laisa Alamia, regional executive secretary, said the anniversary festivities, dubbed as “Pakaradjaan sa ARMM,” will also showcase the development potentials of the autonomous region.

Pakadrajaan is a generic Moro term for “special gathering,” or convergence of communities to either celebrate something, or engage in religious activities such as thanksgiving banquets, or to commemorate historic events.

“We shall have cultural programs to show the unique cultures and traditions of ARMM’s local Moro communities,” Alamia said.

The ARMM's territory was expanded in another referendum in 2001, which resulted in the ratification of its first charter into R.A. 9054, which also led to the fusion of Basilan and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan into its enlarged political domain.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said their observance of the region’s 24th anniversary, to culminate on December 19, is also meant to show their readiness to facilitate a smooth transition from ARMM's present set-up into the new Bangsamoro political entity, which the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) aim to establish by 2015.

Southern Mindanao folks observe November 19 as the Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan Day, a yearly regional non-working holiday, to commemorate the setting foot in what is now Cotabato City in the 14th century of Kabunsuan, an Islamic theologian of mixed Arab-Malay descent, to preach Islam. 

Hataman had even dubbed “PEACEtahan sa ARMM” this year’s founding anniversary of the region.

Hataman first got to the helm of ARMM on a “caretaker basis” in December 2011, following the termination of the elective tenure of regional officials led by the region’s chief executive then, Ansarudin “Hooky” Adiong.

Hataman was elected as ARMM's seventh regional governor during the May 13 elections.

Alamia and Hataman’s chief-of-staff, Amihilda Sangcopan, both told reporters they will continue to introduce reforms in the regional bureaucracy and implement various socio-economic projects to address underdevelopment in far-flung areas until ARMM gets phased out by 2016.

“The autonomous region faces imminent replacement with a Bangsamoro political entity if the government and MILF strike a final peace deal next year,” Sangcopan said.

The Hataman administration now boasts of having reformed two of the most corrupt entities in the region --- the public works and education departments --- through stringent handling of the agencies’ respective treasuries and a crackdown on "ghost teachers" and non-existent schools that past administrations had used as conduits for releases of periodic operation funds.

The ARMM’s public works secretary, Hadji Emil Sadain, reported last month that they had generated, during the past 18 months, close to P200-million worth grants from the national government as a result of their proper handling of the department’s fiscal resources.

Jamar Kulayan, who is the ARMM’s education secretary, also confirmed last August their having saved in recent months P800 million worth of operations money and unspent budget for wages and fringe benefits of the agency's rank-and-file personnel after removing "ghost teachers" from their payrolls.

Alamia said there were no major disruptions in the May 13 synchronized local and midterm elections, and during the October 28 barangay polls in the autonomous region.

“There were resetting and deferment of elections due to various reasons, but there were no failures of elections whatsoever in the autonomous region,” Alamia said.