An Act Creating the Bangsamoro Regional Institute for Higher Islamic Studies, Repealing Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 164, Otherwise Known as the Regional Madrasah Graduate Education Act of 2003, Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes

This takes the ARMM-era Regional Madrasah Graduate Academy in Buluan, repeals its 2003 charter under Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 164, and rebuilds it as a chartered Bangsamoro institution of higher learning: the Bangsamoro Regional Institute for Higher Islamic Studies.

The Institute is a kuliyyah — the bill defines the term as an institution of higher learning conferring degrees in Islamic studies and the Arabic language — offering baccalaureate and postgraduate courses, promoting research and advanced studies, and sitting under the direct supervision and regulatory powers of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education. It may open extensions, branches and annexes anywhere in the region.

Governance is a Board of Trustees of 5: the education Minister as chairperson, the Director-General for Madaris Education as vice-chairperson, the President of the Institute, a representative of the Institute's faculty association, and a representative of the Ulama Association. The last two are appointed by the Chief Minister on the education Minister's recommendation. The Board holds the corporate powers, confers degrees, appoints staff on the President's recommendation, approves curricula, and may receive legacies, gifts and donations tax-exempt and deductible from the donor's income tax. An Institute Council of the 2 deans and 5 professors from each faculty prescribes curricula and admission and graduation requirements, subject to the Board.

The transition is handled in 3 sections. The Ministry has 90 days from approval to submit a transition plan with the reorganized Academy's proposed organizational structure. All assets, capital, records, funds, receivables, equipment and facilities of the Academy transfer to the new head of institution. The Treasurer of the Bangsamoro Government becomes the Institute's ex-officio treasurer, and the Commission on Audit audits its accounts.

Section 17 is the unusual one. No member of the faculty or staff may attempt, directly or indirectly, to influence students or any person in the Institute towards any ideology, political or otherwise, which preaches the overthrow of the government through violence, subversion or any other similar means — on penalty of dismissal by the Board.

The declaration of policy is a 10-point statement of what the Bangsamoro education system is for, and the Institute is one answer to it: strengthening the madaris educational system in the region while producing high-level and middle-level professionals. The list also commits the region to moral governance at all levels of education, to peace education at every level, to inclusive provision for learners with disabilities, and to a gender-sensitive system for learners who are differently-abled, disadvantaged or vulnerable.

The practical case is in the repeal. The Regional Madrasah Graduate Academy was chartered by the ARMM in 2003 and carried an ARMM-era mandate into a government that had replaced the ARMM. The bill does not argue this; it simply legislates the replacement.

The name did not survive. This bill creates the "Bangsamoro Regional Institute for Higher Islamic Studies"; what Parliament enacted 10 days after approving this on Second Reading is BAA 50, the Bangsamoro Kulliyyah for Islamic Studies. The bill already defines kuliyyah in Section 3 and uses it to describe the Institute's character — the enacted act simply moved the word into the name, which is a small decision about whether the institution presents itself in the vocabulary of Philippine higher education or in its own.

The Board grew considerably between filing and enactment. This bill seats 5 trustees, 3 of them ex officio government officials. BAA 50 adds the president of the Student Government Organization, the president of the Alumni Association, a representative of private Islamic institutions, and the Bangsamoro Mufti. The enacted act also gave the Kulliyyah its own money — tuition, fees, subsidies and auxiliary income held as special trust funds, against a duty to run socialised tuition for poor but deserving students — where this bill has no financial autonomy at all and charges its first year to the budget of the academy it is abolishing.

Section 17 is worth sitting with, because of who it applies to. A prohibition on faculty steering students toward ideologies that preach the overthrow of government by violence or subversion is standard language in Philippine school charters. Written into the charter of an Islamic studies institution in a region governed by the political wing of a former armed movement, and enforced by dismissal, the same sentence reads differently. The bill offers no definition of subversion and leaves the judgment with the Board of Trustees.

One procedural note the registry itself gets wrong: Parliament's bills index stops this measure at "Approved on 2nd Reading – 11/20/2023" and records no act. BAA 50 was ratified on 30 November 2023.