COTABATO CITY - Public officials opened over the weekend a newly-concreted portion of a farm-to-market road straddling through Moro enclaves in Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi.
The concreting of the 1.5 kilometer farm-to-market road (FMR) that connects Tubig Basag, Lakit-Lakit, and Mandulan areas in Bongao was funded out of the Transition Investment Support Program (TISP) through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The FMR project was implemented by the office of Bongao Mayor Jasper Que through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with DAF-ARMM under Regional Agriculture Secretary Makmod Mending Jr.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman who led the launching of the road project along with Mending and the region’s public works secretary, Engineer Emil Sadain, said they will extend by three more kilometers the newly-concreted FMR via another MOA between Bongao’s municipal government and Sadain’s office.
Hataman said the DPWH-ARMM will allocate P23.3 million for the continuation of the FMR, to be drawn from the 2014 infrastructure funds of the department.
The launching of the concreted portion of the FMR was witnessed by provincial officials led by Tawi-Tawi Gov. Nurbert Sahali.
Que and Hataman said they are grateful to Sahali for his extensive support to the efforts of the ARMM and the Bongao LGU in putting up projects needed to boost the local economy and generate more livelihood opportunities for the local Samah and Tausog communities.
While in Bongao, Hataman, Que and Sahali also inspected the on-going rehabilitation of the old Chinese port in the municipality.
The port project, which also has a bridge connecting the facility to the mainland, costs P60 million.
The port is the main berthing spot for small fishing and commercial boats that comes from surrounding island towns in Tawi-Tawi, according to Sadain.
The DPWH-ARMM is now restoring the old historic port using regional funds.