Book teaching BARMM lawmakers work efficiency launched

September 26, 2024 | 7:49pm

COTABATO CITY — Two writers and officials of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance launched on Wednesday, September 25, a book full of insights on how members of the fledgling Bangsamoro parliament can perform well, published with the help of the Australian government.

The three-fourth inch thick “MP’s Little Green Book,” authored by Engineer Bai Intan Adil-Ampatuan, a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament and had served as regional planning director of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Violeta Veloso, who had worked as a directorate staff in the House of Representatives, provides ideas on how lawmakers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao can become efficient in discharging their functions as BARMM officials.

The MP in the title of the book, which has 274 pages, means member of parliament, according to officials of the Institute of Autonomy and Governance (IAG), who attended Wednesday’s event, held at the Pagana Convention Center in Cotabato City.

“This book was based on my experiences as an appointed member of the Bangsamoro regional parliament for almost six years now,” said Adil-Ampatuan, a civil engineer by profession. She and her husband, Engineer Abdel Roden Ampatuan, are both scions of noble Maguindanaon clans.

The Australian government channeled to the IAG, a partner of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, the funds spent for the initial production of hundreds of copies of the MP’s Little Green Book, virtually a manual for efficient performance of each member of the BARMM parliament.

The setting up in 2019 of the parliament-style BARMM government, which replaced the then 27-year less empowered ARMM government, is premised on two compacts between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

More than 200 guests participated in the launching of the MP’s Little Green Book, among them Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Abdulrauf Macacua, officials of police and military units in Central Mindanao cities and provinces, representatives of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, leaders of the Moro, non-Moro and indigenous communities in the region, members of the BARMM parliament and IAG officials led by their executive director, the lawyer Benedicto Bacani.

Senior officials of different BARMM agencies and the Philippine Army had told reporters at the sideline of the book launching rite they were impressed with the contents of the MP’s Little Green Book, which they describe as essential in fostering professionalism among members of the regional parliament.

“We are glad there is this book now that can help hasten good governance in the Bangsamoro region,” Col. Markton Karon Abo, group commander of the Philippine Army’s 16th Regional Community Defense Group-BARMM, said.