Some questions for Senator Imee

Cotabato City—First, allow me to thank you for expressing your empathy with the impoverished population of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). As a Bangsamoro and one of the more than three million constituents of the region, I felt elated when you described how worried you are that so much money has been granted to the region through the block grants to it starting its inception last 2020, and yet “mahihirap pa rin ang mga tao doon.”

In your latest television interview and in other pronouncements, you have expressed concern over the disconnect between the huge inflows of money to the region and the less than desirable living conditions of the many poor people here. You have recommended that an audit of all these inflows is in order, to hold accountable those who have not been straightforward in implementing much needed social development reforms in the region. The huge block grant (more than P80 billion annually) is supposed to finance much-needed social development reforms to make the region catch up with the rest of the country, so to speak.

You also expressed that you are not in favor of a proposed bill in the Senate (authored by no less than Senate President Chiz Escudero) to postpone the regional parliamentary elections to 2026, instead of its scheduled elections in 2025, to synchronize with the midterm elections. You rationalized that this has been extended already after former president Rodrigo Duterte approved the extension of the transitional period from 2022 to 2025. This intervention is in line with your being the chair of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation.

Your concern and compassion for the people in the region who continue to wallow in abject poverty despite the inflows of billions of pesos as part of the region’s entitlement after the approval and ratification of the Bangsamoro organic law (Republic Act No. 11054) is truly commendable. The BOL created the BARMM.

However, I would like to raise some issues with these concerns of yours.

First, the present situation of the country, from the BARMM to the rest of the local government units, is but the consequence of past actions and inactions, even outright neglect, of national governments. Pivotal among these national government administrations was that when your father held the reins of power in Malacañang, and you were already a voter then.

You might ask why these issues are related to what you are raising now with the BARMM.

Just to jog your memory a bit, it was your father’s iron grip during martial law that many Bangsamoro young people, including older men who took part in the armed struggle for the Moro right to self-determination, suffered–either through torture or being part of gruesome massacres. You can go through the report of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission that conducted field studies to collect stories of the survivors of victims’ painful experiences as they witnessed how their relatives suffered under the forces of the Philippine military. As chief of staff of the Armed Forces, your father was where the buck stopped in terms of accountability of the AFP actions then.

All these actions of your family, especially by your father and mother, were all unaccounted for, and even the millions of dollars that were deposited in foreign bank accounts were only scrutinized during the time of former president Noynoy Aquino. Fifty billion pesos from these accounts with Swiss banks were released to fund the provision of individual reparations of more than 11,000 claimants out of the 75,000 victims who filed for reparation under the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board law from 2013 to 2018.

Among the current impoverished sectors of the BARMM population are descendants of the victims of martial law atrocities.

While your avowed concern for the region’s impoverished populations is highly appreciated, we also ask you and your family’s past accountabilities that have never been acknowledged, especially by your brother who is now the president.

I appreciate that you want to proceed with the filing of cases and of a stop to the seemingly endless “investigations in aid of legislation.” But as in the past accountabilities not only of your family but all other political leaders, no investigations were held, and no filing of cases happened either.

So, Madam senator, if you start calling out others for accountability, also make sure that you are not entirely beyond reproach as far as demanding accountability and responsibility in the use of public funds.

But let me make this clear. I am not against your undertaking an accounting for all the block grant releases for the BARMM. Just make sure that this is really part of upholding rules of transparent governance, and not just for some insidious political motives.

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