The incoming Bangsamoro parliament’s top three priorities must be employment, education, and social services—including services for the more than 5 million Bangsamoro people living outside the BARMM who feel underserved by their own homeland’s government, Maranao leader Samira Gutoc said Monday.
Gutoc laid out the agenda in an interview on DZRH News program The Situation Report on September 14, responding to a question about what the new elected parliament must deliver first.
The Maranao leader said employment is the most urgent because the absence of private sector jobs has made public office the primary avenue for economic advancement in the Bangsamoro, a condition that fuels the very political violence that marred election day.
“High population at nakita natin may mga violent incidents sa Cotabato at dito sa ilang parte ng BARMM. Talaga namang employment ang kinakailangan dahil ito lang ang nakikita minsan na politika ang source of employment. Public office lang ang nakikitang space for good people to enter,” Gutoc said.
Gutoc said education is the second priority, citing the Senate’s EDCOM report which documented alarmingly high stunting rates and dropout rates among Bangsamoro youth, problems that compound each other and perpetuate poverty across generations.
“Sa Senate report ng EDCOM, napakalaki po ng stunting, malaki ang dropout rate sa mga kabataan,” the Maranao leader said.
Third is social services, specifically for Bangsamoro communities outside the region’s boundaries, a population she estimates at more than 5 million who live in other parts of the Philippines but remain culturally and politically connected to the Bangsamoro homeland yet receive little targeted support from it.
“Number 3, I think sir, ‘yung social services. Kami po ay Bangsamoro outside Bangsamoro, marami po kami, more than 5 million na nakatira na sa labas ng Bangsamoro. Paano po kami na-a-address din ng ating Bangsamoro homeland?” Gutoc said.
