The Aquino administration’s chief negotiator with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) assured on Monday that the new Bangsamoro entity replacing the soon-to-be-abolished Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will not be “overfunded” through billions of pesos in annual block grants.
In a Palace briefing, government peace panel Chairman Miriam Coronel Ferrer also clarified that constitutional agencies, like the Commission on Audit, will not lose their prerogatives under the new Bangsamoro setup, contrary to apprehensions in some quarters.
Ferrer told reporters that the Bangsamoro political entity will not be overfunded, as critics have claimed.
She explained that the reported P25-billion “block grant” to be allocated for the incoming Bangsamoro entity, in lieu of the ARMM, is “not a new item” in the annual national budget, also called the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Ferrer pointed out that it is just the renaming of an existing GAA item pertaining to lump-sum appropriation previously given to the ARMM, which will be replaced by the Bangsamoro entity negotiated by the MILF with the Aquino administration.
She added that the Bangsamoro entity will get, more or less, the same per-capita level of national government subsidy allocated to other regions.
1 comment
nagfund pa sila sa mga terrorist…..Aquino style