Andaya: Where are funds for Bangsamoro plebiscite?

President Rodrigo Duterte’s efforts to bring lasting peace to Mindanao may come to naught after Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno failed to allocate funds for the plebiscite on the proposed new Bangsamoro juridical entity, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Monday.

In a privilege speech, Andaya wondered how the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would be able to conduct the plebiscite on Jan. 21 and Feb. 6 as mandated by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) without any appropriation approved by Congress.

He said he had told Diokno about the matter, but the budget secretary failed to act on it.

“(Diokno) completely forgot about it. Had we listened to him and passed the budget without even looking at it, then we would have been part of that negligence,” Andaya said.

“Maybe he has other things in mind other than the President’s peace and order agenda,” he added.

In a statement, Andaya said the “prospect of lasting peace in Mindanao is in peril.”

P857M for plebiscite

He said the Comelec needed P857 million in holding the plebiscite, but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) did not include this in the proposed P10-billion budget of the Comelec for this year.

“The budget for BOL plebiscite is not the only item which Diokno forgot to include in the 2019 budget. Even the budget for the BOL implementation is missing from budget documents submitted by the DBM to Congress,” he noted.

At least 2.8 million people are expected to cast their votes in the plebiscite for the ratification of the BOL, based on records of the Comelec.

Enacted last year, the BOL provides for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The BARMM will cover the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), including Cotabato City and Isabela City, six towns in Lanao del Norte, and 39 barangays in six North Cotabato towns.

Some barangays in Iligan City and Zamboanga City, five towns in Lanao del Norte, and some barangays in Zamboanga Sibugay also petitioned to be included in the BARMM.

The Comelec said the Jan. 21 plebiscite would be conducted in areas comprising the ARMM as well as Isabela City in Basilan and Cotabato City.

The plebiscite for the province of Lanao del Norte, except Iligan City; the towns of Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pikit and Pigkawayan in the province of North Cotabato; and the 28 areas contiguous to any of the Bangsamoro core areas, where either the local government or at least 10 percent of registered voters asked for inclusion in the plebiscite, shall hold theirs on Feb. 6.

The Comelec expects to finish this week the printing of the official ballot, said Ma. Victoria Dulcero, vice chair of the Comelec’s printing committee.

North Cotabato leaders

In North Cotabato province, unlike their Moro counterparts in Sulu and Lanao del Norte, non-Moro leaders are throwing their all-out support for the BOL despite the prospect of losing some of their barangays that would opt to join the Bangsamoro territory.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza expressed her support for the BOL on Saturday at a forum attended by national and local officials, and leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front at the gymnasium of the provincial capitol in Kidapawan City.

“Yes to Bangsamoro Organic Law because it is high time we end the suffering of children, women and the elderly from the conflict,” Mendoza said. “The BOL will pave the way [for] genuine peace in [North] Cotabato.”

In Carmen town, where seven barangays had petitioned the Comelec to join the BOL plebiscite but only five were approved, Mayor Rogelio “Roger” Taliño said he would let go of the barangays in his town that would opt to join the Bangsamoro. —With reports from Tina G. Santos and Julie M. Aurelio