BARMM getting new complex in Lamitan

BASILAN, Philippines — There is a new government complex in Lamitan City in this province where the newly created Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) can establish a provincial center.

The complex, now 90 percent complete, can accommodate provincial offices of different BARMM agencies. It is a joint project of the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the region’s Department of Public Works and Highways and the Basilan district engineering office.

The BARMM will replace the now 29-year ARMM following the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) last Jan. 21.

Soler Undug of the Basilan district engineering office said the P120-million main building of ARMM’s supposed provincial government complex is ready for inauguration.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, regional public works secretary Don Loong and the Basilan engineering office are presently constructing a P60-million auditorium in the same area. The building will also be turned over to the BARMM.

“Lamitan City is proud to host the Basilan provincial operations center of the incoming BARMM entity,” Lamitan City Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay said yesterday.

The ARMM administration is also turning over to the BARMM the more than P1-billion Basilan transcentral road project, portions of which now straddle the former enclaves of the Abu Sayyaf in the Sampinit Complex in hinterlands of the island province.

The highway will interconnect Barangay Tumahubong in Sumisip, Barangay Mahayahay in Maluso and Barangay Santa Clara, located in the middle of the cities of Lamitan and Isabela.

The construction of the transcentral road involves the ARMM, the office of Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman, the ARMM regional police and the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Lt. Gen. Arnel dela Vega, commander of Westmincom, said he is certain Basilan will become even more peaceful under BARMM.

“There are existing infrastructure built by the present ARMM administration in strategic areas in the province in recent years. There is enough for BARMM to start with,” he said.

Dela Vega said one proof that there is sustainable peace now in Basilan was the peaceful conduct last week in Sumisip town of the ARMM regional athletic meet involving more than 4,000 students from local schools and from the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Organizers said holding such an event would have been impossible anywhere in Basilan when the Abu Sayyaf was still a serious threat to local security. 

The venues of different athletic competitions during the regional meet in Sumisip were former bastions of the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf, originally a small band of radical Islamists, first emerged in Basilan in the early 1990s and subsequently became a Mindanao cell of the Islamic State in the Middle East.

The group, now dominant only in Sulu, is feared for its practice of beheading captives if ransom demands are not met.

ARMM’s education secretary Rasol Mitmug Jr. and Hataman have separately said the regional athletic meet was held in Sumisip to show that the province is now peaceful following the surrender of about 300 Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the past three years.