ARMM’s ‘last’ budget of P24.3B the biggest in 26 years, says Hataman

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The 2015 budget of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is its biggest allocation in its 26 years of existence, according to local officials.

said in a statement on Wednesday that the region has successfully defended its P24.299-billion budget for 2015. The budget was passed in anticipation of the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which would create the new Bangsamoro entity.

“Maguindanao and Cotabato City Representative Bai Sandra Sema sponsored the ARMM 2015 budget at the House Plenary, against the grilling of Bayan Muna Party-List Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate and Zamboanga City Congressman Celso Lobregat,” Hataman said.

He said the new budget was higher by 16.04 percent compared to the 2014 P20.4-billion budget, and was way higher than the 36.62 percent allotted to the ARMM in 2013.

Hataman said that when he assumed office as officer-in-charge in 2011, the regional budget was pegged at 11.1 billion. The fund, as in the years before that, was spent on salaries and other operating expenses.

Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia noted that the coming year posted an all-time high increase in the ARMM’s annual budget, now seen to be its last appropriation by Congress, with less than a year before the possible formation of the BTA.

Hataman said the 16-percent budget increase for ARMM would be spent on capability building for the incoming new entity that was expected to replace the ARMM aside from the usual obligation for salaries and maintenance and other operating expenditures.

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