DAP, OPAPP ink MOA to assist in BARMM’s transition period

• Jul 27, 2019
• OPAPP Site
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COTABATO CITY, July 26, 2019 – The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Thursday as part of the national government’s commitment to assist in the transition period of the newly-established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Under the MOA, the DAP will help the ad hoc committees of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) in crafting the codes for the creation of offices in the BARMM, while OPAPP will provide the needed operational support.

The agreement is an offshoot of a meeting between BTA members and policy experts who agreed to carry out capacity-building initiatives that will guide the ad hoc committees in formulating the code for the creation of BARMM offices.

After its creation in February, the BTA has already created at least eight ad hoc committees that will draft priority legislations of the interim government.

These legislations include the administrative code, internal revenue code, indigenous people’s affairs code, civil service code, education code, local government code, electoral code and the code for the creation of offices.

The agreement was signed by DAP President and CEO Engelbert C. Caronan, Jr., DAP Managing Director Jo Ann De Belen, and Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez Jr, and witnessed by BTA Speaker Ali Pangalian Balindong and Cabinet Secretary Karlos Alexei Nograles.

Under Article XVI, Section 4 of Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the BTA should formulate priority legislations.

“I would like to congratulate the OPAPP, the DAP, and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Creation of Offices for their prompt action to jumpstart the creation of principal government agencies that will serve as the foundation of the new BARMM regional government,” Balindong said.

“I am certain that you will be able to come up with a new BARMM bureaucracy which is efficient and responsive to the needs of our constituents,” he added.

According to Balindong, the parties “are tasked until the end of the year or earlier to draft a proposal to support the legislation of various offices mandated under the Bangsamoro Organic Law.”

Caronan, for his part, described the undertaking “as one of the most if not the most important social engineering process that the Philippines has undergo.”

“We realized the importance of the undertaking. We know that it affects not only now but the future generations as well, and so we would like to thank you for the trust that you have given to the DAP to facilitate the process,” he said.

Carona clarified that the DAP will “only facilitate the process.”

“It is your intentions. It is your aspirations that has to appear, that has to be seen in the work that we are going to be facilitating,” he said.

Galvez said the MOA is a fulfillment of OPAPP’s commitment to assist the BARMM during the transition period.

“We will help in whatever contribution we can do to support the Bangsamoro,” he told the BTA officials who attended the signing ceremony.

Galvez said the assistance is in “compliance of the President Rodrigo Duterte’s guidance.”

“When we had our Cabinet meeting, President Duterte told us to help the Bangsamoro. His guidance is to utilize the state colleges, particularly the Development Academy of the Philippines to assist the BTA,” he said.

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