THE Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) approved on third and final reading the P65-billion budget for fiscal year 2020 of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) on Saturday, November 30, 2019.

BARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI) said the Bangsamoro Parliament approved the 2020 budget of Barmm with 48 affirmative votes. One voted no and five abstained.

On the same day, Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Al Haj Murad Ebrahim signed into law the first Bangsamoro Appropriations Act (BAA).

BPI said that the BAA 2020 will finance the priority plans, projects and programs of Barmm.

Ebrahim said he was honored to be the first Bangsamoro chief minister to have read the document “which is a fruit of the more than five decades of struggle of the Bangamoro.”

“Hindi ito para sa akin, hindi para sa mga ministers. (This is not for me, this is not for the ministers) This is for the Bangsamoro people,” he said. (SunStar Zamboanga)