COVID-19 ASSISTANCE. Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo (right), Minister of the Interior and Local Government in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, hands over a pack of relief goods to a Cotabato City beneficiary on Thursday (March 26, 2020) to help cushion the effect of the health crisis brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 due to the implementation of community quarantine across the region. He announced the availability of some PHP155 million for local government units to address the threat brought by the dreaded disease. (Photo courtesy of BPI-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has allotted a total of PHP155 million to equip local government units (LGUs) in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
"Each of the five-province components of the region will receive PHP5 million, PHP2 million for each of the three cities, PHP1 million for each of the 116 municipalities, and PHP8 million for the 63 barangays in North Cotabato,” said Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM’s interior and local government minister, in a social media post on Thursday.
The BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, and Lanao del Sur; tthe cities of Cotabato and Lamitan” ang Marawi City, and the 63 villages in six towns of North Cotabato.
The funding is taken from the BARMM’s contingency fund purposely to augment the quick response funds of LGUs to fight Covid-19, Sinarimbo said.
Meanwhile, the official said the MILG-BARMM is already addressing some gaps in the fight against Covid-19, including the policy and legal issues on the authority of LGUs to utilize a portion of their internal revenue allotment beyond the ceiling of their calamity fund.
This developed as the regional government initially dispatched Thursday a batch of medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) to several priority referral hospitals in the region, particularly the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City and the Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
“We also have distributed PPE to men in uniform manning checkpoints in the region and front liners of Amana Bank and Land Bank of the Philippines in Cotabato City to ensure that they are safe while they continue serving our constituencies,” Sinarimbo said.
Moreover, the Bangsamoro government has already coordinated with Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital to facilitate the immediate construction of a facility to house potential numbers of Covid-19 patients. (PNA)
