Autonomous Region In Muslim Mindanao

No election

MANILA, Philippines — President Benigno S. Aquino III Thursday signed into a law a measure postponing the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) scheduled in August and synchronizing them with the national elections in 2013.

The bill, principally authored by Sen. Franklin Drilon in the Senate and Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema in the House of Representatives, became Republic Act 10153.

The signing of the bill coincided Thursday with President Aquino’s first year in office.

Under R.A. 10153, the President will appoint officers-in-charge (OICs) for the regional elective officers of the ARMM, choosing from among the recommendees submitted by a screening committee.

In a press briefing after the signing, Aquino said the administrative order for the selection process of the OICs is still being drafted.

“What is important is to designate persons who have the same vision as ours, those who will discontinue the traditional system in ARMM, those who are really focused on delivering basic services due them,” he said in Filipino.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spokesman Eid Kabalu, who recently resigned from his post, has volunteered to be one of the OICs for ARMM.

Aquino, however, said Kabalu’s case will have to be studied because there is a process for the selection of the OICs.

Malacanang said it is ready to defend the ARMM elections postponement law if it is challenged in court.

The President said the measure seeks to reduce poverty in the region, one of the poorest in the country.

ARMM’s poverty incidence was a high 38.1 percent in 2009. All the provinces in the region are within the national poverty incidence at 20.9 percent. Maguindanao is the poorest province in the region, with a poverty incidence of 44.6 percent in 2009, according to Aquino.

“Some of those who were elected into office have big mansions to live in, while their kababayans have to go through dusty and rough roads; project funds go directly to their pockets; no public bidding is made for public projects and no liquidation for funds used; the amount of local officials’ salary don’t event fit in the calculator,” Aquino said.

The President said that with the elections’ postponement, political dynasties will end and private armies dispersed.

Supporters of the President’s plans to bring reforms to ARMM Thursday hailed R.A. 10153.

5000 marijuana plants seized in Maguindanao raid | U.S. News Las Vegas

Police and military authorities seized some 5,000 marijuana bushes and seedlings in a raid jointly conducted in Matanog, Maguindanao.

Citing a report from Maguindanao police director Sr. Supt. Marcelo Pintac, Chief Supt. Bienvenido Latag, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the raid was jointly conducted by Matanog PNP, police provincial mobile group and elements of the 37th Infantry Battalion.

The raiding team swooped down Tuesday morning on the marijuana plantations located on the slopes of mountains in the borders of Barangay Bayang and Sapad.

Latag said part of the uprooted marijuana plants were burned in the area while the rest were brought to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for proper disposition.

The same will be used as evidence against the plantation owners who, to date, remained unidentified.

Pintac said the owners probably had prior information about the raid that they harvested some of the plants on Monday night.

The area used to be a stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front until 2000 when then President Joseph Estrada ordered a massive military operations that led to the fall of MILF’s Camp Abubakar.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Jolo, Mount Ragang, Bud Dajo, Mount Makaturing, Latukan, Dakut

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

Documents on autonomy and minority rights

The Filipino Moving Onward 4 Tm' 2007 Ed.

The Maranaws, dwellers of the lake