COTABATO CITY, Philippines – In a bolder fashion of transparency, the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) held here Wednesday its second day of opening of bids for the P1.2 billion School Building Projects (SBP) for 2010-2011 with members of the media observing the proceedings.

ARMM Executive Secretary and BAC Chairman Naguib Sinarimbo opened bid envelops submitted by 30 participating bidders across Mindanao in the presence of dozens of journalists for about half an hour before suspending the proceedings in time for the weekly Tapatan sa ARMM media forum here Wednesday morning.

The ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI) arranged the unprecedented bidding dynamics to let the public know “our administration’s adherence to transparent and accountable governance” existing prior even to the advent of the Aquino regime, Sinarimbo said.

ARMM’s Department of Education Secretary and BAC Vice Chairman Baratucal Caudang, alongside Chief of Staff Avecina Alonto and Finance Director Batolacongan Abdullah, committee members, helped in the arrangement of the record-setting bidding process cum media forum.

Sinarimbo said 30 bidders coming from across Mindanao have participated in the bidding process for the construction of some 1,227 new classrooms, repair of 235 classrooms and 556 school toilets that had been funded with a total amount of P1.2 billion in 2010 and 2011.

“We conduct our transactions in the ARMM with utmost transparency and openness,” Sinarimbo said, citing Wednesday’s publication of the earlier invitation to bids in the Manila Bulletin and in the autonomous region’s official Web site: www.armm.gov.ph.

According to Caudang, the administration of ARMM acting Gov. Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong would want the P1.2 billion project implemented “prudently and expeditiously” to address promptly the region’s shortage of some 3,000 school buildings.

Earlier, Caudang said he was also pushing for the immediate approval by the Executive Board of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) of a P3.5 billion education package project that has been allotted with a P3.5 billion fund by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) through its Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) to fully solve the school buildings’ backlog in the region.

“We’d like to see to it that all our programs will have to be in place before we are replaced by the appointees of Malacañang,” Caudang explained.

Adiong alongside the region’s acting vice governor and 23 elected assembly members, including political appointees in the regional bureaucracy, have until September 30 – a day before Malacañang installs officers-in-charge (OICs) in the ARMM, pursuant to Republic Act (RA) 10153, which defers the August 8, 2011 ARMM polls to 2013 and allow the President to appoint such caretakers.

At Wednesday’s joint-affair, Sinarimbo said that in the 2008-2009 School Building Project, the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG) had saved some P8 million due to its strict policies in the releasing of funds to implementing contractors.

“The P8 million savings we got from the previous School Building Project is now in the process of being implemented to construct more school buildings for the ARMM,” Sinarimbo pointed out.