By Ali Macabalang

COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro autonomous regional government will take over the management of the Grand Masjid, known as Grand Golden Mosque of Brunei Sultan Bolkiah in this city, to ensure its efficient operations and preserve its value as a place of worship and one of tourist spots in the region.

This was announced by Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Minister of Interior and Local Government Naguib Sinarimboat in a media forum here.

“The national government through Finance Secretary Carlos ‘Sonny’ Dominguez has offered lately for us to take over the management of the grand mosque as part of the transition process for the Bangsamoro government,” Sinarimbo said.

The mosque sits on a five-hectare lot in Barangay Kalanganan here, and was built in 2011 from a $43-million donation from Brunei Darussalam Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.

The lot was donated by then Maguindanao First District Rep. Didagen Dilangalen. But the issue of maintaining the mosque’s operations has since been unsettled, prompting the national government to take over, Sinarimbo said.

Others have said that it was either the administration of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) or the Cotabato City government that was supposed to have assumed the responsibility of running the mosque.

The national government’s “temporary” management, however, will not include fund allocations for maintenance and operations of the mosque as some residents have been taking care of the internal and external sections of the masjid on voluntary services “in pursuit of Islamic tenets,” sources said.

With the establishment early this year of BARMM to replace the 29-year-old ARMM and the formation last month of the Intergovernmental Relation Groups (IRGs) for the devolution of national functions to the new governance, the issue on the mosque’s management cropped up, Sinarimbo said.

Dominguez, who heads the national government’s IRG, offered the mosque management to BARMM along with the authority on Islamic banking.

“We readily accepted the offer because the Sultan Bolkiah mosque is of significance not only in BARMM and in the country but internationally,” he said.

He said the regional government will allocate “ample portion” of its subsidies and local revenues for the maintenance and operations of the mosque, adding that the agency that will mostly likely take responsibility is the office of the Grand Mufti.

Sinarimbo said the office of regional Chief Minister Ahod “Hadji Murad” Ebrahim is contemplating on inviting the Brunei Sultan to visit the mosque he funded possibly next year.