COTABATO CITY – There’s a newly built timber footbridge that now connects the Samah and Tausog villages in Panglima Tahil, Sulu and has started to usher in improvements in the area’s supposedly cash-strapped economy.
The timber footbridge was built by local villagers with the help of the World Bank and its conduit for its projects in the south, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Social Fund Project (ASFP).
Lolita Asiri, social welfare officer of Panglima Tahil, a historic island town some five kilometers off Sulu’s provincial capital Jolo, said the footbridge connects the villages of Likud and Subah Bangas, both home to mix Tausog, Samah and a few non-Muslim residents.
“The people actively supported this ASFP project and helped build it the bayanihan way. There was extensive community participation in its implementation,” Asiri said.
The ASFP, bankrolled by the World Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, is under the joint supervision of ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and lawyer Mustapha Sambolawan.
Asiri said one of the local groups that helped put up the bridge was the Bangas People’s Organization, which is comprised of barangay folk involved in peace-building and socio-economic activities aimed to foster peace and sustainable development in Panglima Tahil.
Asiri said the footbridge was part of the joint ASFP and World Bank’s Community Development Assistance (CDA) thrust, which aims to upgrade the productivity of poor communities in the autonomous region and, at the same time, generate better livelihood opportunities through projects that can hasten economic stability. – John Unson