Hataman to deliver final ulat ng bayan or SORA
Published Dec 18, 2018 08:49 am
By Ali Macabalang
COTABATO CITY – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Mujiv Hataman is set to deliver his final ulat ng bayan or state-of-the-region address (SORA) on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 34 days before the conduct of a plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
The two city mayors, 118 municipal mayors, five provincial governors and members of the House of Representatives as well as police, military brasses and leaders of various sectors across ARMM have been invited, according to event organizers and facilitators.
The Bureau of Public Information (BPI), the ARMM’s media relations outfit, said Senator Bam Aquino has confirmed attendance in tomorrow’s event as one of invited national dignitaries.
“It’s going to be the last public address where RG (Regional Governor) Hataman is expected to report on the gains, concerns and aspirations of his almost nine year-administration,” a BPI worker told the Bulletin Tuesday night.
Hataman, then a congressman representing the Anak Mindanao (Amin) party-list, was named ARMM OIC-Governor on Dec. 22, 2011 by former President Benigno Aquino III purportedly to reform the regional bureaucracy. The former President had often depicted ARMM as a “failed autonomy” or “failed experiment” due to alleged corruption marked by pervasive “ghost” personnel, students, teachers, schools and socio-infrastructural projects.
He ran and won in the rescheduled ARMM gubernatorial election in 2013. He was re-elected in 2016.
In his State of the National Addresses (SONAs) in 2013 and 2014, then President Aquino had prominently cited Gov. Hataman’s successes in fixing ARMM governance and operations.
Congress and Malacañang have since provided tremendous budgets for ARMM, enabling the Hataman administration to implement massive infrastructure, education, health, and social welfare projects.
From a P9-billion ARMM budget in 2012, the regional allocation increased to P20 billion in 2013, P29 billion in 2014, P30 billion in 2015, P32 billion in 2016 and P32 billion in 2017 including the regional government’s shares from local revenues, according to financial reports.
In his 2017 SORA, Hataman said the constant budget increases enabled his administration to concrete almost all of the ARMM’s 992-kilometer national highways and more than 1,000 kilometers of provincial roads, among other many completed major projects.
The BPI once quoted Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Vice Chair Mohagher Iqbal as saying that administrators of the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao (BARMM) “will build on the gains of the ARMM under Hataman, then, we’ll see to it, that… there will be much improvement as far as the life of our people is concerned.”
BARMM will replace ARMM once R.A. 11054, also known as Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), is ratified in the Jan. 21, 2019 plebiscite. It will automatically absorb the ARMM component areas, namely Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan.
The BOL also prescribes for the inclusion in BARMM of the cities of Cotabato and Isabela, six towns in Lanao Norte and 39 barangays in six North Cotabato towns.
Some barangays in three other towns in Lanao del Norte, in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Sibugay and Iligan City have petitioned for inclusion in BARMM, according to the Commission on Elections, which would set a separate plebiscite for such areas once the petitions are validated.
The two city mayors, 118 municipal mayors, five provincial governors and members of the House of Representatives as well as police, military brasses and leaders of various sectors across ARMM have been invited, according to event organizers and facilitators.
The Bureau of Public Information (BPI), the ARMM’s media relations outfit, said Senator Bam Aquino has confirmed attendance in tomorrow’s event as one of invited national dignitaries.
“It’s going to be the last public address where RG (Regional Governor) Hataman is expected to report on the gains, concerns and aspirations of his almost nine year-administration,” a BPI worker told the Bulletin Tuesday night.
Hataman, then a congressman representing the Anak Mindanao (Amin) party-list, was named ARMM OIC-Governor on Dec. 22, 2011 by former President Benigno Aquino III purportedly to reform the regional bureaucracy. The former President had often depicted ARMM as a “failed autonomy” or “failed experiment” due to alleged corruption marked by pervasive “ghost” personnel, students, teachers, schools and socio-infrastructural projects.
He ran and won in the rescheduled ARMM gubernatorial election in 2013. He was re-elected in 2016.
In his State of the National Addresses (SONAs) in 2013 and 2014, then President Aquino had prominently cited Gov. Hataman’s successes in fixing ARMM governance and operations.
Congress and Malacañang have since provided tremendous budgets for ARMM, enabling the Hataman administration to implement massive infrastructure, education, health, and social welfare projects.
From a P9-billion ARMM budget in 2012, the regional allocation increased to P20 billion in 2013, P29 billion in 2014, P30 billion in 2015, P32 billion in 2016 and P32 billion in 2017 including the regional government’s shares from local revenues, according to financial reports.
In his 2017 SORA, Hataman said the constant budget increases enabled his administration to concrete almost all of the ARMM’s 992-kilometer national highways and more than 1,000 kilometers of provincial roads, among other many completed major projects.
The BPI once quoted Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Vice Chair Mohagher Iqbal as saying that administrators of the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao (BARMM) “will build on the gains of the ARMM under Hataman, then, we’ll see to it, that… there will be much improvement as far as the life of our people is concerned.”
BARMM will replace ARMM once R.A. 11054, also known as Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), is ratified in the Jan. 21, 2019 plebiscite. It will automatically absorb the ARMM component areas, namely Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan.
The BOL also prescribes for the inclusion in BARMM of the cities of Cotabato and Isabela, six towns in Lanao Norte and 39 barangays in six North Cotabato towns.
Some barangays in three other towns in Lanao del Norte, in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Sibugay and Iligan City have petitioned for inclusion in BARMM, according to the Commission on Elections, which would set a separate plebiscite for such areas once the petitions are validated.