By Ali Macabalang  COTABATO CITY – Starting likely this month, the Bangsamoro autonomous government will be able to provide regular monthly subsidies to 12 constituent towns created over a decade ago without the provision for internal revenue allotments (IRA), incumbent officials said. The 12 IRA-less municipalities include Shariff Saidona Mustapha, Datu Hofer, Datu Salibo, Anggal Midtimbang, Blah Sinsuat, Mangudadatu, Pandag, and Northern Kabuntalan, all in Maguindanao; and Akbar, Mohammad Ajul, Hadji Muhtamad, and, all in Basilan. These towns were established one after another beginning in 2006 by the Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). But the national government refused to accord them IRA because of the reported failure to satisfy the requirements set under R.A. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991. And since their creation, the 12 municipal governments have reportedly subsisted on special fiscal aids from the national, regional and provincial administrations, which have proven to be inconsistent. Ironically, older barangays absorbed by the 12 towns have been receiving regular IRAs from the national government, it was learned. The past ARMM administrations, notably of former Regional Governors Ansaruddin Adiong and Mujiv Hataman had made several representations to national authorities, but failed to draw favorable attention to the plight of the 12 predominantly Muslim towns. But hopes began to surface after the enactment in July 2018 of Republic Act 11054, which mandated the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), replacing the 29-year old ARMM. President Rodrigo Duterte formally inaugurated the BARMM parliament and bureaucracy on March 29, 2019 after the overwhelming ratification of the law in a plebiscite held two months earlier. In his ceremonial message, the President expressed confidence that several gray areas in the defunct ARMM will find remedies in BARMM because of its immense autonomy and resources. In the last quarter of 2019, BARMM Chief Minister Ahod “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim convened a series of meetings with elected officials of the 12 towns, and discussed bilateral arrangements for the grant regular IRA to them. Details of such arrangements were not immediately known. But lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM spokesman and concurrent Minister for Interior and Local Government, hinted at sourcing the IRA of the 12 towns from the annual subsidies of the new regional government. Among such subsidies is the BARMM’s automatic annual receipt starting this year of a block grant amounting to at least P63-billion. In an interview by the Manila Bulletin, Sinarimbo also hinted at the passage by the BARMM parliament of a regional local government code that will adjust requirements on grant of IRA to municipalities within the new region.