ARMM now included in BuB program

• Source:http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?title=armm-now-included-in-bub-program&id=129593
• Monday, June 27, 2016 9:30:00 pm

By Vince Alvic A. F. Nonato (Reporter)

THE Department of Budget and Management will now include the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao under the coverage of the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB) program.

Joint Memorandum Circular No. 7-A, dated June 10, amends the policy guidelines for the BuB’s implementation to include the office of the ARMM regional governor and the ARMM regional departments as implementing agencies.

The circular provides a P20-million budget cap each for the two cities of Marawi and Lamitan, and the region’s 116 municipalities.

The Regional Poverty Reduction Action Team for the ARMM will be chaired by the office of the regional governor and co-chaired by a representative from the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s central office.

The vice-chairpersons are the DILG regional secretary for the ARMM, and a representative each from the DBM and the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

The membership is composed of the secretaries of regional agencies involved in the BuB implementation, all provincial planning and development coordinators in the region, an NAPC sectoral representative residing in the region, the regional coordinator of the Regional Basic Sector Coordinating Council, and all the NAPC provincial focal persons.

The BuB originally excluded the poverty-stricken ARMM from the localized budgetary initiative, as it was expected to benefit from the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, which would have created a new autonomous government that receives an annual block grant of 2.4% of the national tax collection, a P17-billion Special Development Fund, and a P1-billion transitory fund. However, the law did not pass in both chambers of Congress.