By Ali Macabalang COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro autonomous government is creating its own youth commission through a bill reportedly on the verge of passage by its 80-member parliament. (Keith Bacongco/ MANILA BULLETIN) The enabling bill was on second reading state by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) parliament as of last month, according to Dr. Marjanie Macasalong, outgoing executive director of the Office on Bangsamoro Youth Affairs (OBYA). Macasalong, also a member of the BTA parliament, said the proposed Bangasamoro Youth Commission (BYC) will replace the OBYA, which was a creation of the abolished Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The operation and organizational structure of the proposed regional agency will be patterned after the National Youth Commission (NYC), and exercise autonomous functions and powers in handling the concerns and welfare of the youth sector in the Bangsamoro region, the official said. Macasalong enumerated basic features of the proposed BYC at the recent episode here of the weekly Kapehan sa Bangsamoro media forum hosted by the autonomous region’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI). It was learned that the BPI, also a creation of the defunct ARMM government, would be phased out and transformed into a ministry or bigger information entity in the advent of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The BARMM replaced the 29-year old ARMM under R.A. 11054, which was enacted in July, 2018, and ratified in the January 21, 2019 plebiscite in the autonomous region. The law also abolished the ARMM and all its created agencies and offices. It empowers the 80-member parliament to create replacement entities as well as new ministries deemed vital in the aspirations of the BARMM governance. So far, the regional parliament has already created a number of new agencies, including the Commission on Human Rights that replaced a similar body established under ARMM. The parliament is currently deliberating bills seeking to create a Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA), a regional economic development council, and a regional women commission (BWC), among others. BARMM Chief Minister Ahod “Hadji Murad” Ebrahim launched last month a regional online job portal to recruit new personnel in replacement of some 6,000 regular workers of ARMM, who were separated from office via three-phase schedules on October 31, November 30, and December 31 last tear.