Milestones in the BARMM (1)

Cotabato City—The last two weeks of September have been quite hectic for many officials and functionaries in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Several noteworthy events took place not only here at the Bangsamoro Government Center in this city, but also in other key cities in Mindanao, and even in Metro Manila.

But I would like to focus on two very significant events that took place here in the heartland of the autonomous region.

Last Sept. 25, the region held its first-ever Bangsamoro Development Policy Forum at one of the big hotels. It was a whole day event that was conducted with a mixture of presentations of keynote speakers and resource persons, and a conversation-style panel discussion of very timely topics, policy issues, and challenges confronting the region.

More than a hundred top government officials, among them from the key ministries, agencies, and offices in the Bangsamoro, and some representatives from academic institutions, civil society organizations, and think tanks were among the participants of the forum.

Among the forum’s key presenters and resource persons were leading policymakers and researchers from national offices like the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) and the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), the economic policy development section of the Philippine office of the World Bank, and the technical assistance teams of the Support to Bangsamoro Transition (Subatra).

The Subatra program is supported through a generous grant from the European Union, the Agencia Espanola Cooperacion International para el Desarollo (AECID or the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development), and implemented through internationally recognized development groups like DT Global (formerly Cardno, Australia-based) and the Particip (Germany-based). The Subatra Justice and Society Project of the Subatra program partially funded the forum, with the technical assistance team of Subatra on strengthening institutions for regional governance providing technical guidance before and during the conduct of the forum.

Among the highlights of the forum were the presentations of top policymakers from PIDS, Neda, and the World Bank, and regional-based academic researchers like professor Acram Latiph of the Institute of Peace and Development in Mindanao of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City. I also contributed a short presentation of the results of two exploratory studies on the intersections of climate change, conflict, gender inequality, and social exclusion that were collaborative grounded research projects that provided policy directions for the region.

The collaboration was between me and a former student, now a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and one of the few HKUST faculty members included in the recently released Stanford University metrics of the most often cited authors and experts in international journals. Professor Laurence L. Delina is from Sto. Nino, South Cotabato, who continues to do groundbreaking research on climate change, its intersections with conflicts, and other debilitating challenges faced in the Bangsamoro and other vulnerable regions in the country.

The second study on an expanded version of climate change intersections was also a collaboration with former colleagues at the College of Social Science and Humanities of the Mindanao State University in General Santos City and with the Peacebuilding and Stabilization Unit of the United Nations Development Programme.

“Securing a Future for All by growing a resilient middle class” was the theme of the first Bangsamoro Development Policy Forum. It elicited several contentious points on the so-called “middle class.” The theme is taken from policy directions of the national government that emphasizes creating more resilient communities of the future throughout the country. One resource person dissected the concept of “middle class” as something slippery and hard to concretize, especially in the context of both the Philippines in general and in the Bangsamoro in particular.

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From meltdown to showdown

The conversation on the “middle class” stems from the recognition of the significant dip in the region’s poverty levels from a high of 52.6 percent in 2018 to a low of 29.9 percent in 2021. Given the drawbacks in agriculture and service-based livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic, the steep decline was quite telling.

Challenges to agriculture-based sources of livelihood that were heavily affected by the pandemic impinged on the BARMM, which was then an infant region, starting to walk on its wobbly feet while navigating the difficult path toward its transition from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to BARMM.

(To be concluded next week)