MARGINALIA: Birthing Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office (SPAO)

MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 24 January) While still deeply engrossed in a spirited conversation on Institutional Partnerships and Linkages with 39 passionate police lieutenant colonels, alongside a handful of fire and jail superintendents in their Public Safety Officers Senior Executive Course (PSOSEC) at the National Police College, my phone buzzed. It was a Facebook Messenger notification—a snapshot of a page, captioned: “Committee Report na.”

Three hours later…

Navigating through heavy traffic on my way back to the Metro after the whole day’s conversation, my Messenger chimed again. This time, the message read: “Approved na po.”

Minutes later, there I was, posting on Facebook:

“Approved Just Now: BTA Resolution Requesting the Government of the Day for the Immediate Activation of the Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office (SPAO), Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).”

“Al-hamdulillah, for this small victory,” I whispered to myself, letting out a sigh of relief.

Becoming a Shari‘ah counselor wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision for me. One of my three driving motivations—though I came into this field later than most—was to lobby for the establishment or activation of Shari‘ah-related offices, such as the Shari‘ah High Court, Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office (SPAO), Shari‘ah Special Prosecution Service (SSPS), Shari‘ah Academy, and the Office of the Jurisconsult. These are all outlined in Sections 7 and 16 of Article 10 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (RA 11054) and Sections 6, 13, and 15 of Title V (the Bangsamoro Justice System) of BAA 13 (Bangsamoro Administrative Code). (See Mansoor Limba, Cracking the Shari‘ah Code: Insider Tips and Tricks for Super Busy Professionals to Pass the Shari‘àh Bar Exam (ElziStyle Bookshop, 2025.)

The establishment of such offices isn’t just a bureaucratic dream. These could provide job opportunities for hundreds—if not thousands—of Shari‘ah counselors, many of whom are either unemployed or underemployed. Take, for example, a young lawyer and Shari‘ah counselor I personally know, who was stuck in a Salary Grade 8 position in a government agency.

But beyond employment, activating the SPAO could be a lifeline for countless poor constituents. It could provide them public assistance for Shari‘ah-related issues, including marriage, divorce, custodianship, inheritance, and property distribution settlements.

When I visited barangays in BARMM while writing the BARMM Barangay Justice System Training Manual (Cotabato City: MILG and SUBATRA, 2025), I heard firsthand from Lupong Tagapamayapa (Conciliation Council) members about their struggles. “Sometimes, we don’t know how far we can go,” admitted one council member. “Marital issues, for instance—we know it’s not under our jurisdiction, but people still come to us for help.”

During a focused group discussion in Tawi-Tawi, an official emphasized: “With an SPAO in every municipality, we could register marriages and divorces easily. Imagine the burden we could lift off people’s shoulders if we could settle disputes faster.” (See Mansoor Limba, The Tri-Justice System in Action: My Personal Journey Through Legal Pluralism in 15 BARMM Barangays (ElziStyle Bookshop, 2024), p. 7.)

Returning to my Facebook post, five hours later, a practicing Shari‘ah counselor dropped a comment in Maguindanaon:“Malu natana tana den ni kina approved lon” [“Its approval is somewhat delayed.”]

And you know what? I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s the timeline:

• January 21, 2019 – The Bangsamoro Organic Law (RA 11054) mandates in Article X, Section 22: “The Bangsamoro Government shall establish a Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office to provide legal assistance to indigent persons involved in cases under the jurisdiction of the Shari‘ah courts. It shall function similarly to the Public Attorney’s Office, specifically for cases that fall under Shari‘ah law.”
• October 28, 2020 – The Bangsamoro Administrative Code (Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 13) officially establishes the Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office (SPAO) under the Office of the Attorney General (Title V, Chapter 2, Section 13).
• December 21, 2022 – MP Baileng Mantawil sponsors a resolution requesting the Government of the Day for the immediate activation of the SPAO. It’s subsequently referred to the Committee on Bangsamoro Justice System. (Source: https://parliament.bangsamoro.gov.ph/proposed-resolutions)
• January 23, 2025 – After more than two years, Proposed Resolution No. 122, “Resolution Requesting the Government of the Day for the Immediate Activation of the Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office (SPAO),” is finally approved during the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament Third Regular Session No. 82.

In short:

It took over two years from SPAO’s establishment (October 28, 2020) for a parliament member (MP Mantawil) to file a resolution requesting its activation (December 21, 2022). Then, it took another two years for the Bangsamoro Parliament to approve that resolution (January 23, 2025).

Now, between this approval and the Government of the Day’s actual implementation of the request? 

Well, only time will tell.

Conceived on October 28, 2020, SPAO is almost as old as the proverbial ‘wata na BARMM’ (BARMM child).

So, when will it finally emerge from the womb to provide essential services to the BARMM kids and their parents? 

Let’s wait and see.

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a writer, university professor, blogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and www.amazon.com/author/mansoorlimba.]

Tags: SPAO, Shari‘ah Public Assistance Office, Philippine Shari‘ah, Bangsamoro Justice System, Bangsamoro Organic Law, Bangsamoro Administrative Code