📌BTA Second Regular Session No. 57
March 24, 2021
Highlights:
☑️The following bills were tackled at their second stage: BTA Parliament Bill No. 23 An Act Protecting the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of the Bagsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM); Bill No. 64 An Act Detailing the Shares of Local Government Units (LGUs) in the 75% share of the Bangsamoro Government in the national taxes, fees, and charges; Bill No. 84 An Act creating the Seaweed Industry Development Authority; Bill No. 85 An Act institutionalizing Barter Trade in the BARMM; Bill No. 88 An Act declaring March 6 of every year as Bud Dajo day in commemoration of the Tausug’s Resistance to foreign occupation; and Bill No. 87 An Act Mandating the dual use of the Hijiri and Gregorian calendar in all Ministries, Agencies, LGUs, Offices, and Institutions in the BARMM.
☑️MP Prof. Eddie Alih delivered a sponsorship speech on the mishandling of COVID-19 crisis in Tawi-Tawi, specifically, at the Datu Halun Sakilan Hospital where frontliners in their desperation wrote two letters to the Chief Minister, President Duterte, and other concerned agencies. In their letter dated September 28, 2020, they stated that there were already (70) healthcare workers at the hospital who tested positive. As the hospital is the only operational hospital in the municipality of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, the frontliners continued to work despite their fears for themselves and their patients. MP Alih conveyed how they wanted the BARMM Government to conduct an investigation, and to send medical personnel and specialists to aid them.
☑️MP Alih emphasized how this was not just a Tawi-Tawi concern but a regional, national, and global concern, and thanked MP Maisara Latiph for promptly filing a resolution calling for the Committee on Health to conduct an investigation in relation to this incident in order to prevent such incidents from happening again. The Committee on Health chaired by MP Dr. Safrullah Dipatuan had already approved the said resolution and is set to conduct the investigation to complement the previous investigation conducted by the Ministry of Health.
☑️The plenary also approved the following Committee Reports from the Committee on Social Services on the following resolutions: PR 94 calling for the development of intergovernmental guidelines for the support of livelihood projects, PR 189 urging the office of the Chief Minister through the LGUs to come up with applicable mechanisms that will monitor implementation of the 4Ps program, PR 227 requesting the CM to designate a focal person for each province and the Special Administrative Region in creating a database for Bangsamoro indigents for use of MPs to see where they can extend support, and PR 190 calling for the establishment of an institutional mechanism to ensure the implementation of programs and services for PWDs.
☑️PRs 94 and 189 went through the Sub-Committee on Socio-Economic Development chaired by MP Maisara C. Dandamun-Latiph where the amendments were approved at the sub-committee level, before being tackled at the mother committee level, and then the plenary.
