Gov’t, ADB and BARMM team up to fast track implementation of Bangsamoro Development Plan

February 18, 2020

The national and Bangsamoro governments, along with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), plans to create a policy team that will look into ways on how to best implement the Bangsamoro Development Plan covering the period 2020-2022.

This suggestion came from ADB Country Director Kelly Bird and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Minister of Public Works Eduard Guerra during an ADB-BARMM Roundtable Discussion Tuesday in Pasig.

The discussions aimed to provide the national and BARMM governments an opportunity to learn more about the ADB’s range of development assistance, as well explore ways of collaboration in the implementation of the agency’s programs and projects in the Bangsamoro region.

“We need to move fast. I think we can start the formulation of the team from ADB, the BARMM and the national government. We’ll talk constantly so that we can redefine the low-lying fruits that we can implement as soon as possible, as well as to avoid duplications of projects,” Guerra said.

“To be frank with you, we (BARMM) need help because this is quite a transformation on our part from being a revolutionary [group] to (practitioners of) governance.” he added.

Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority Executive Director Mohajirin Ali cited the various challenges confronting the BARMM, which include the following: (1) weak governance; (2) threat to peace, security, public order, and safety; (3) slow and fluctuating economy; (4) high poverty incidence; (5) low performance outcomes on health, education, sanitation, and social welfare; (6) vulnerability to disaster and climate change; (7) insufficient infrastructure facilities; and (8) delayed rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi City.

To give the national and BARMM governments a better perspective of the ADB’s initiatives in the country, Bird presented two documents which ADB Philippines had produced, namely the Country Partnership Strategy 2018-2023 and Country Operations Business Plan.

He explained that the Country Partnership Strategy outlines the strategic partnership approach adopted by the donor agency in carrying out socioeconomic development initiatives in the country.

The document is guided by the Philippines’ AmBisyon 2040 and the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022.

Bird said the Country Operations Business Plan is a three-year “rolling program” of the organization’s lending operations which include investment loans, programmatic and policy-based loans, results-based loans, technical assistance grants, and knowledge products.

The ADB official also shared that the agency’s efforts are focused on the rehabilitation and construction of roads and bridges in Western Mindanao and the BARMM, as well as the Emergency Assistance for Reconstruction and Recovery Project in Marawi.

The agency, Bird added, is also carrying out other infrastructure-based interventions such as flood control and protection projects, the Mindanao Irrigation Development Project, and the Mindanao Agri-Business Development Project.

Various national government line agencies threw their full support behind the said ADB initiatives, citing the mechanisms they have put in place to ensure greater synergy with the Bangsamoro government.

“The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is totally supporting BARMM. We have created an organization -- which was reviewed and approved by the Department of Budget and Management and now at the table of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea -- wherein we are planning to establish the Regional Project Management Office for Bangsamoro that will serve as a platform for the faster communication and cooperation with our counterparts from the Ministry of Public Works,” said DPWH Undersecretary Emil Sadain.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Assistant Secretary Mercedita Sombilla reaffirmed the agency’s full support to the BARMM.

“NEDA has been a very good partner of BARMM, in terms of [formulating] the Bangsamoro Development Plan. In fact, we are assisting them on the framework and the development of the plan itself,” Sombilla said.

“So, we are very happy that they (BARMM officials) were able to come up with a plan in a very short time,” she added.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. underscored the Duterte administration’s vision for the Bangsamoro people, which is to achieve genuine peace and sustainable development in the region.

“The Duterte administration gives primary importance to creating greater synergy among stakeholders. The best example here is the Executive Order No. 79 which created the Inter-Cabinet Cluster Mechanism on Normalization which aims to bring greater convergence in the delivery of different programs and projects for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front combatants, their families, and communities,” Galvez said.

“With these in mind, I have no doubt that we can have a fruitful and productive discussion that will enable us achieve our collective goal, and that is to uplift the lives of the Bangsamoro people and create a brighter future for them and the generations to come,” he added.

BARMM Minister of Interior and Local Government Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo reminded the participants to always consider “realities on the ground,” as this mindset will enable them to craft better policies, programs and projects.

“If we ask ourselves what poverty looks like, we have to go down to the barangays -- in the level of villages where you see people not eating three times a day,” Sinarimbo said.

“In our programming, we need to go down the last mile. Look at the barangays, because here, we don’t deal with numbers. We deal with realities. If we reach [those communities], then truly, development will really have benefited the people,” he said. DMS