MINDANAO is the land of promise, the nation’s rice bowl, surrounded by seas teeming with fish and aquatic resources. As a young reporter, I would jump at every opportunity to be assigned to write features about this land of plenty. I also wrote a travel piece about Zamboanga for a prize-winning coffee table book published by the Department of Tourism.
As the head researcher for the late film director Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Bagong Buwan,” we traveled the length and breadth of the island to conduct interviews, review documents, and visit the sites of battles and betrayals. I interviewed imams and leaders, market vendors and tricycle drivers, read volumes written about Mindanao.
I also worked behind the scenes to push for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM), first, as a communications officer at the United Nations Development Program, and then as a media advocate for the region. I’ve always believed that Mindanao was full of potential, a paradise in the making, if only its leaders could get their act together.
But such a wish seems to be a pipe dream again. Several taxpayers in the BARRM have requested that the Office of the President and the Office of the Speaker-Bangsamoro Transitory Authority investigate the allegedly anomalous P680-million rice procurement transactions by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) in 2024.
A copy of the complaint was also sent to the Senate and the Commission on Audit (COA). The complainants, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said that the transactions allegedly violated procurement laws, transparency standards and fiscal responsibility. They claimed that all rice-procurement contracts were given to a single supplier, a pharmaceutical distributor, which raises concerns about its capacity to supply rice and food.
The complainants said that the awards were made despite the presence of other bidders, who were the lowest calculated and responsive bidders. In one transaction, the government allegedly lost P15 million because the contract was awarded to the pharmaceutical company instead of the lowest bidder, who supplies agricultural products.
The complainants alleged that the repeated disqualification of qualified bidders without clear justification, along with the consistent awarding of contracts to an entity not engaged in the supply of agricultural goods, might suggest improper procurement practices. They said that rice was bought at over P60 per kilogram, when the prevailing market price is P45 per kilogram.
They said a BARMM minister made it appear that an emergency purchase of rice and hygiene kits was made on July 24, 2024, using the 2023 MILG-READi Fund worth P100.325 million. But there was no declaration of a state of calamity to justify the award. According to the complainants, no delivery was made for this budget, and no goods distributed.
The misuse of the emergency procurement mode under Republic Act 9184, well after the lapse of the period of calamity, further compounds the alleged irregularities. The transactions have been intentionally structured to circumvent procurement rules. Moreover, the ministry allegedly practices “splitting.” It means intentionally dividing a single transaction into several procurements, thereby reducing the threshold amount to less than a million to circumvent the bidding requirement.
It seems that the trouble in paradise needs to be examined more deeply, to ferret out the truth. Only through this can Muslim Mindanao move on and claim the grand future promised by its rich resources found on land and sea.
Another issue that has been raised is the Philippine participation as guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is the biggest in the world. Some people said that the Philippines should boycott the bookfair in protest against Germany’s treatment of Israel, which has invaded Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Others said the Philippines should continue its participation, since preparation for this event was done before the Israel-Gaza conflict erupted.
The Philippine guest of honor committee led by Ani Rosa Almario, Karina Bolasco, Kristian Cordero, Neni Sta. Romana Cruz and Nida Ramirez issued a statement affirming the right to dissent and condemning the ongoing assault on Palestinian life and liberty. They recognized the moral clarity and deep conviction behind the call for a boycott, but also affirmed that the Philippines’ participation in the book fair is an assertion of its identity and stories.
The committee stated that literature has never been neutral for Filipinos and that their presence at the fair will not be detached from the world’s pain, but an engagement with it. They stand with complete solidarity on the side of humanity and encourage people to help the Palestinians by buying food from restaurants in Little Gaza at the University of the Philippines in Diliman and reading their works.
