Thousands of BARMM employees to receive P10K Ramadan bonus each

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Thousands of Muslim and Christian employees in ministries and support agencies under the Bangsamoro government shall receive a P10,000 Ramadan bonus each, regional officials announced on Sunday, March 23.

The newly-appointed chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Abdulrauf Abdul Macacua, had signed an executive order last Thursday, March 20, ordering the release of a P10,000 Ramadan bonus to each of all employees of all ministries and other special function entities under the BARMM regional government.

Macacua and other ranking BARMM officials separately told reporters on Sunday that the Ramadan bonus shall cover even contractual and job order personnel of the regional government.

There are thousands of BARMM employees in the regional capitol in Cotabato City and in provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and in the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

Many employees of different BARMM ministries and support agencies had posted on Facebook their appreciation of Macacua’s executive order, for most of them virtually unexpected.

BARMM’s health minister, the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Monera Sinolinding, Jr., and his counterpart in the region’s transportation and communications ministry, the accountant-lawyer Paisalin Pangandaman Tago, told reporters on Sunday that their subordinates in different divisions that they manage were elated with Macacua’s move.

"They are thankful to our newly-appointed chief minister," Tago said, referring to Macacua, who replaced last week the region's first ever chief minister, Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, based on a written designation that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed early this month.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the Ramadan both as a religious obligation and as reparation for wrongdoings. The Ramadan, which lasts for one lunar cycle, or between 28 to 30 days, is expected to end possibly after this week.

“Personnel in different offices of the Ministry of Health are glad about this Ramadan bonus. They will have something to spend during the Eid'l Fit'r celebration and for their other needs,” Sinolinding said.

The Eid'l Fit'r, which marks the end of the month-long fasting season, is an important religious holiday among Muslims.

It is the Darul Iftah, also known as the House of Opinions, which is comprised of Muslim theologians, some of them graduates of religious schools in the Middle East and North Africa, that announces the exact date of the Eid’l Fit’r based on their actual sighting of the moon, the traditional signal for the end of Ramadan and the start of the month of Shawwal in the lunar-based Hijrah calendar.