ARMM team preparing for OIC takeover

COTABATO CITY—A transition team of technocrats has been formed in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to ensure a smooth turnover in the region to whoever President Aquino would appoint as officer in charge, acting Gov. Ansaruddin Adiong said yesterday.

Adiong said he wants the team members and their output ready in time for the President’s State of the Nation Address on July 25.

“This will serve as a policy guide for the new officers in charge to take when we step down by Sept. 30,” said ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo.

Sinarimbo said during a Cabinet meeting held in Cagayan de Oro City over the weekend, the consensus was to have all documents ready by July 24.

“This is an avowed commitment of the governor’s policy on good governance through transparency and accountability,” he said, as he noted complaints of “missing and cannibalized equipment and properties” during the previous administration.

“We want to leave a legacy for the people to benefit out of these reform agenda,” said ARMM Interior Secretary Haroun Alrashid Lucman Jr.

Lucman, an expert in local governance, said one of the things that  needs to be reformed is the ARMM system itself.

He said since its inception in 1976, the Moro people “never became truly autonomous in the real sense of the word.”

Lucman said the national government’s spoon-feeding approach should be stopped and local governments be allowed instead to stand on their own.