80 BTA members to take oath at Palace Wednesday

MARAWI CITY: The eighty members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) will take their oath of office on Wednesday at Malacanang on the same day of the ceremonial confirmation of the Canvass results of the January 21 and February 6 plebiscites on Republic Act No. 11054 or the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito Galvez said the nominees have been vetted but "we do not know yet the final 80 members of the BTA." 

Malacanang has yet to announce the names of the 80 members that President Rodrigo R. Duterte has appointed.

The BTA will govern the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) during the three-year transition period until June 30, 2022, when its first set of officials shall have been elected and taken their oath.

Within three years of transitional government, it is expected that the three-stage decommissioning process of the MILF 41,000 fighters is completed and that all accords between the government and the MILF are fully implemented.

Murad is the MILFs nominees for Chief Minister. 

Pursuant to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement signed by the government and the MILF on March 27, 2014, the BTA is to be led by the MILF.

The MILF submitted a list of 41 nominees to the BTA while the OPAPP submitted a list of 39.

Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) confirmed to reporters that February 25 is the turnover from ARMM to BARMM as per initial arrangement with the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The 23 elected ARMM officials will sit with the BTA until June 30, 2019, when their terms end.

Based on the results of the 2019 plebiscite, the BARMM will be composed of the five provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi, the three cities of Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi, and 63 villages in North Cotabato.

Sulu voted “no” to the ratification but will still be part of the BARMM because the law provides that the ARMM votes as “one geographical unit.” Sulu has a pending petition before the Supreme Court to declare RA 11054 unconstitutional, citing various reasons, including the treatment of ARMM as one geographical area.

Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi had earlier said they will file a protest on the conduct of the plebiscite in the city, alleging the MILF employed threats and intimidation. The MILF denied the allegations. 

(MASIDING NOOR YAHYA and ASA T. MADALE/RSP)