COTABATO CITY, 16 November 2002— Senators from Mindanao have urged the Cabinet not to slash the budget of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), warning that development projects in the impoverished region could be affected.
Senators Robert Barbers and Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. issued the warning after finding that the Department of the Budget and Management (DBM) has slashed the ARMM’s proposed budget for 2003 by almost half.
Reports have said that the DBM is seeking a budget of only 5.4 billion pesos, down from the region’s 10.4-billion-peso budget this year.
There was no explanation made but it is believed that the decision has something to do with the huge budget deficit presently faced by President Arroyo’s administration, which her financial managers pegged at close to P170 billion pesos.
The country’s proposed General Appropriation Act (GAA), which contains the government’s budget for next year, is currently under deliberation by Congress. If the budget bill is not passed into law, this year’s budget will be applied for the coming year.
Barbers and Pimentel said slashing the ARMM budget would have a huge negative impact on the president’s pronouncement that her administration would give more attention to Mindanao, particularly the Muslim region.
ARMM officials warned that such a small budget would reduce the regional government into a merely ministerial agency doing routinary jobs.
The ARMM is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, plus the city of Marawi.
