THE SERIES of discussions for drafting the Bangsamoro local government code kicked off Monday in Cotabato City, with the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG) setting its sights on strengthening barangays being the local government unit (LGU) “nearest” to the people. “Here in our region, poverty incidence, dropout rate, or literacy rate, are just numbers. But if you go down to the barangay level, they know the names of the people affected by these data. The connection of our programs to the people is clearer. If we want our projects to have impact to the people on the ground, we should bring it to the nearest government unit — the barangay,” MILG Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo said. The MILG minister said Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim supports the plan to invest more in the barangay units through higher budget allocation. The local government code is one of the priority legislations of the Bangsamoro as provided under Republic Act 11054. Mr. Murad said that creating the code “will clearly define the relationship between the LGUs and the Bangsamoro government.” He also noted that RA 11054, An Act Providing for the Organic Law for the BARMM, compared to the now defunct ARMM government, gives “full autonomy entity” to the newly-created Bangsamoro government. “We can have a different mechanism of relationship with the local government,” he said. — Tajallih S. Basman

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