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Thursday, March 28, 2024

ASOG-backed Bangsamoro portal launched

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[First of 3 parts]

Cotabato City—Residents of the Bangsamoro region as well as the country’s keen professional netizens can now engage in online discussions, access information, or listen to experts speak on self-governance as well as public finance management in moral reforms being pushed by its fledgling leadership.

The Institute of Autonomy and Governance based here and the Ateneo School of Government launched last week an online portal designed to promote free flow of information, and public discussion on the Bangsamoro transition.

A website, Facebook Page, Twitter page and YouTube channel comprise the Access Bangsamoro portal (accessbangsamoro.ph) on its May 30 launch.

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The Bangsamoro Transition Authority, which is composed of executive agencies as ministries and a legislative parliament, runs the transitional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao until 2022, as provided under RA 11054, the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

The launching ceremony at Em Manor Hotel here highlighted the messages of support from BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Presidential Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. and Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Steven Robinson.

The Access Bangsamoro online and social media portal aim to promote free flow of information, public discussion and analyses for the effective implementation of the BOL and successful transition to the BARMM, said Ram Toledo, communications manager of the IAG.

Ebrahim said the Bangsamoro Government is committed to support Access Bangsamoro with the “hope that the portal will provide a significant space for research and discussions that will promote transparency, accountability and moral governance in the Bangsamoro.”   

Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, IAG executive director, said the portal is maintained and hosted by the IAG and the Policy Center of the ASOG and with funding assistance from the Government of Australia.

“The Access Bangsamoro portal can potentially be a game-changer and a force for good in the Bangsamoro”, Bacani said.

Under the “Bangsamoro Talks” icon of the accessbangsamoro.ph, guests can watch Laureate Professor Emeritus Cheryl Saunders of the Melbourne Law School talk about intergovernmental relations and its implementation in the BARMM as mandated by the Bangsamoro Organic Law; Dr. Romulo Emmanuel “Jun” Miral Jr., director-general of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department of the House of Representatives, discuss the concept of the BARMM block  grant; Australian National University Professor Paul Hutchcroft explain what it means for BARMM to have a parliamentary system and what kind of implications this might have for the choice of the electoral system; and Mindanao State University (MSU-IIT) Iligan Chancellor Sukarno Tanggol talk about the Electoral Code for the BARMM.

For lawyer Ishak Mastura, IAG Development Consulting Inc. chief operations officer, the portal “is not just any kind of web portal but a window to the challenges of Bangsamoro modernity.”

Lawyer Michael Henry Yusingco, a senior fellow with ASOG and IAG, said the Access Bangsamoro as a repository of policy and legislative ideas is an online platform he wanted to recommend to reform-minded Filipinos, hoping that “it can later evolve into a community of citizens working together not just for a stable and prosperous BARMM, but also for a better and brighter Philippines.” 

(To be continued)

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