BTA approves Bangsamoro Civil Service Code

COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament approved on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 the Bangsamoro Civil Service Code (BCSC) during session 54 of its second regular session led by Speaker of the Day, Deputy Speaker Atty. Omar Yasser C. Sema.

By nominal voting, 67 Members of the Parliament (MPs) voted for yes on the passage of BTA Cabinet Bill No. 59 entitled “An Act providing for the Bangsamoro Civil Service Code of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)”, while none of the MPs voted against nor abstained on the approval of the said bill.

BTA Cabinet Bill No. 59 was filed in the plenary on July 21, 2020. After series of extensive consultation to various stakeholders, said code was finally presented on July 08, 2020 to the cabinet members of the Bangsamoro government with the presence of Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim.

On November 09, 2020, BTA has begun the consultations for the proposed BCSC.

Panel chairman and Member of Parliament (MP) Raissa Jajurie said earlier that the aim of the consultations is to “gather comments, position papers, and issues on the code that will come from our resource persons, and we will present it to the Committee on Rules for deliberation.”

In a previous statement, Panel Vice-Chair and MP Aida Silongan said “BCSC hopes to provide an effective instrument for good governance and responsive policies on human resource administration of the Bangsamoro Government while addressing the legitimate needs and peculiarities of our people.”

The BCSC is among the priority legislations the parliament needs to pass within the transition period specific in the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) under Section 2, Article V stating that “the Bangsamoro Government shall exercise its authority over the civil service without prejudice to the overall supervision of the President of the Republic of the Philippines”.  In paragraph 2, Section 39, Article VII of the BOL, it further mandates the Bangsamoro Government to enact a civil service law provided that it shall be in accordance with existing national laws.

Meanwhile, the Bangsamoro Civil Service Code shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in a newspaper of general circulation or within the BARMM.

To date, the BTA has approved seventeen (17) Bangsamoro Autonomy Acts (BAA) including BARMM’s official flag and official emblem, Bangsamoro Appropriations Act (BAA) 2020, Bangsamoro Socio-Economic Development Act of 2019, Bangsamoro Hymn Act of 2020, Recruitment Agency Regulation Act of 2020, Act Defining the Power of Appointment in BARMM, and creations of the Bangsamoro Attorney General’s Office (BAGO), Bangsamoro Women’s Commission (BWC), Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission (BHRC), Bangsamoro Youth Commission (BYC), Bangsamoro Sports Commission (BSC), Bangsamoro Administrative Code (BAC), An Act Extending the Availability of the 2020 Bangsamoro Appropriation to December 31, 2021, Bangsamoro Appropriations Act (BAA) 2021, and An Act Adopting an Official Seal for the Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (GALao, Publication and Media Relations Division, BTA Parliament)