House panel issues show-cause order vs BARMM execs for skipping probe
FILE PHOTO House of Representatives | PHOTO: Official Facebook page of the House of Representatives
MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the Bangasamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) who skipped a congressional probe on the alleged misuse of the local government support fund have been asked to explain their absence, aside from being required to attend the next hearing.
During the hearing of the House of Representatives’ committee on public accounts, show-cause orders were issued against BARMM officials led by Parliament Speaker Pangalian Balindong and Cotabato City Mayor Mohammad Ali Matabalao after the panel members were not satisfied with their excuse letters.
Bukidnon 2nd District Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores and Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop made the motions approved by committee chair and Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano after these were seconded.
According to Flores, the reason Balindong and his colleagues stated that the parliament is already conducting an inquiry cannot be cited because the House has its own prerogative as the country’s legislative branch to start an investigation.
“It does not take away the prerogative of the House to conduct its own inquiry,” Flores said.
Article continues after this advertisementLanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said that BARMM funds are ‘bloc grants’ or subsidies from the national government — therefore, these were allocated by Congress as part of the General Appropriations Act.
Article continues after this advertisement“The power of Congress to allocate funds goes with it the authority to monitor the use of those funds,” he said.
Adiong was the one who delivered a privileged speech last January 27 about the issues hounding the BARMM, including reports where 400 barangay officials in his province supposedly received huge sums of money through their Land Bank of the Philippines accounts.
Initially, Adiong said that around P100 million was supposedly released to local officials.
“More than 400 barangay officials of Lanao del Sur woke up with their LBP accounts containing money, ranging from P500,000 to as much as P2.5 million. Later, officers from BARMM OCM told them to withdraw a big chunk of the money and just leave P200,000 behind,” Adiong said in his speech.
Adiong said the money was supposedly earmarked for what they called “special operations” — which local officials have failed to explain.
“This is a grave and urgent matter that threatens the core principles of good governance, accountability, and the sacred trust placed in us by the people of the BARMM,” Adiong added.
According to Adiong, around P6.3 billion was allocated to the BARMM’s local government support fund (LGSF). However, he believes that documents referring to the Bangsamoro Budget Circular 10 (Series of 2024), and the Department of Budget and Management Local Budget Circular 155 (Series of 2024) were not followed.
But eventually, at the hearing, Hedjarah Mangompia-Said of the BARMM Commission on Audit (COA) office informed the committee — after Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman’s questioning — that the regional government had already released a total of P6.4 billion in LGSF funds over a six-month period, or from August 2024 up to January 2025.
The COA official vowed to furnish the committee a detailed list of LGSF releases to local officials from the barangay level up to the provincial governments in BARMM.
