Aquino to meet with ARMM execs Wednesday

President Benigno S. Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino is to meet with officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Davao City on Wednesday.

ARMM Executive Secretary Laisa Masuhud said the President is expected to take up with the region’s mayors and governors the various protocols to the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement the government signed with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on February 12, 2012.

Lawyer Anwar Malang, secretary of the ARMM’s Department of the Interior and Local Government, said local officials were also informed the President will hold a dialogue with them on developments affecting their areas as the peace process moves to the crafting of the Basic Law by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, and eventually by Congress.

Masuhud said ARMM’s disaster risk-reduction officials will also take up disaster management with the President in a bid to be better equipped in responding to disasters.

She said ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman was optimistic the region’s Disaster Risk-Reduction and Management Council would evolve as a model in disaster response, after some of its components successfully beefed up disaster groups that rescued victims and helped rehabilitate areas devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in November last year.