By MASIDING NOOR YAHYA

ILIGAN CITY – Eleven non-receiving-IRA barangays of the Maguindanao town of Salibo received on Monday subsidies from the Bangsamoro government to support their operations, according to an official of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

In a statement, BARMM interior and local government minister Naguib Sinarimbo said they released on Monday subsidies to these Non-IRA barangays.

Of the 15 barangays of Datu Salibo, 11 are without IRA since 2009.

Sinarimbo said the barangays have not received their Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) share since 2009 because they were created during the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the forerunner of BARMM.

As such, these villages were excluded in the regular IRA budgeting, he said.

“This is a transitional support until we can regularize these barangays under the provisions of the Bangsamoro Local Governance Code and be entitled to regular IRA recipients,” he added.

“Last year, we programmed in the 2022 BARMM budget the provision of monthly subsidy to a total of 47 non-IRA barangays in the region,” added Sinarimbo.

During the transition period, he said non-IRA barangays will receive a monthly subsidy of PHP100,000 to fund their operations. “We hope that this will further enhance service delivery at the level of the barangays,” he said.

IRAs are equivalent to 40 percent of national taxes collected three years prior to the planned fiscal year, as mandated by Republic Act No, 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991. (Agencies)