Cotabato City (July 22, 2020) – Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim transmitted on Wednesday, July 22, through the Office of the Secretary-General the Bangsamoro Administrative Code (Cabinet Bill No. 60), Bangsamoro Civil Service Code (Cabinet Bill No. 59) and the Bangsamoro Local Governance Code of 2020 (Cabinet Bill No. 58) to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament.

The Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) mandates the BTA to enact such priority legislations as the Bangsamoro Administrative Code, Bangsamoro Revenue Code, Bangsamoro Electoral Code, Bangsamoro Local Government Code, and Bangsamoro Education Code during the transition period.

Chief Minister Ebrahim said these (three) codes were carefully drafted by the cabinet, and has undergone several deliberations, consultations and session with experts.

“I, together with lead drafters from the Cabinet, the Speaker and the Majority Floor Leader met with some members of the (BTA) Parliament to discuss how to fast track the passage of the priority codes without sacrificing the quality of its contents,” he said.

He reiterated that the passage of the six priority codes are the main duties of the BTA as provided in the BOL and it is of prime importance that all of them be passed within the year (2020).

“We believe that it is important to finish the process as soon as possible in order to demonstrate our capability and commitment to complete the tasks at hand,” the Chief Minister said.

“We are confident that we will be able to iron out whatever issues and challenges we may face in completing the legislative process,” he said.

In addition, Chief Minister Ebrahim reminded the BTA Parliament members that the establishment of BTA is not the end of the Bangsamoro struggle.

“The positions that we are holding today is not a reward of some sort, the positions we are holding are reminders of the huge responsibilities entrusted to us by our people. Our sense of reward should be about seeing our people living a significantly better life and quite frankly, we still need to do a lot more to achieve this goal,” he stressed.

He said, “we only have less than two years left before the first election in June 2022. Yes, we have done so much already but on the other hand, we still have a lot to do. Let us make the most out of our remaining term for our people, for the Bangsamoro.” (RSolaiman, BTA Parliament)