Photo shows from left to right: BARMM Cabinet Secretary Mohd Asnin Pendatun, BARMM Interim Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, DAP sa Mindanao Managing Director Jo-Ann De Belen and DAP Project Officer Katrina Auditor.
The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), through DAP sa Mindanao (DSM) Managing Director Jo-Ann Emilene De Belen and her team, held consultation meetings with Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Interim Chief Minister and head of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim and other key interim cabinet officials last August 13-16 in Cotabato City.
During the meetings, both parties identified two training programs for the BARMM, essentials of governance for cabinet ministers and other senior executives, and Ladderized Course on Public Management for middle managers. The DAP will be providing technical assistance on the creation of offices for BARMM agencies as well.
De Belen assured the BARMM officials of the DAP’s full support towards the achievement of peace and prosperity through moral governance. She reiterated the words of DAP President and CEO Atty. Engelbert Caronan, Jr. that “the Academy will only facilitate the process. It is their (the BARMM) intentions, it is their (the BARMM) aspirations that have to appear, that have to be seen in the work that the Academy will facilitate,” at the signing ceremony for the memorandum of agreement among the DAP, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.
Ebrahim welcomed these initiatives from DAP and acknowledged that the training programs and technical assistance are urgently needed in the BARMM.
The DSM also conducted separate meetings with Minister Mohagher Iqbal of the BARMM Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education, Minister Naguib Sinarimbo of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government, and the BARMM Cabinet Committee on the Creation of Offices.
The consultation meetings are part of the Academy’s commitment to provide relevant and long-term assistance to the BARMM to help them build a strong and responsive public service, which will include enhancing individual and institutional capacities for improved governance and sustainable peace in the Bangsamoro. – Ellinor T. Santos