Benefits of defunct Shariff Kabunsuan’s personnel readied

COTABATO CITY - The monetized terminal leaves of personnel of the defunct Shariff Kabunsuan provincial government will be released on Monday, March 22 in formal rites at the cultural center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) compound in Cotabato City .

This was announced today by Maguindanao OIC-Governor Gani Biruar, who has successfully worked out with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) the release of the monetized terminal leaves of over 100 personnel affected in the earlier dissolution of the Shariff Kabunsuan province.

In a press statement through the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI), Biruar said the original schedule of the distribution ceremony was postponed from March 18 to March 22 in view of the coming visit in ARMM of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the former date.

“We have to reset the date of the distribution ceremony (March 18 to 22) in order to provide us full time in releasing the monetized terminal leaves to individuals concerned,” Biruar said.

Biruar, who was in Manila as of press time to attend the 1st special meeting of the ARMM’s Regional Economic and Development Planning Board (REDPB), appealed to recipient personnel to bring identification credentials to revceive their monetized terminal leaves.

He advised those personnel who could not come personally during the rites to send their representatives with corresponding powers of attorney, starting at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, March 22.

The DBM has prepared the monetized terminal leaves for personnel of the then Shariff Kabunsuan provincial government who have been displaced as a result of the Supreme Court resolution last year dissolving the province due to the legal infirmities in its earlier creation by the ARMM regional assembly.

Some personnel of the dissolved provincial government have been rehired in their mother units in the Maguindanao provincial government.

However, more than 100 others have not been absorbed, and were therefore given monetized terminal leaves, Biruar said. (AGM/bpi-armm