ARMM's public works chief named 'model official'

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Employees of the public works department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Friday greeted with a thanksgiving rite their secretary’s recognition as “model secretary” of ARMM.

The region’s Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was touted as the 2nd most corrupt regional agency in the past, second to the ARMM’s Department of Education.

Regional Public Works Secretary Hadji Emil Sadain personally received from the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, the Sharif Kabunsuan Merit Award during the “Gabi ng Parangal” last Tuesday, one of the highlights of the month-long celebration of the ARMM’s 25th founding anniversary.

The anniversary festivities, which started on November 17, will culminate on December 17.

The award Sadain received was named after Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan from what is now Johore in Malaysia. He was the first ever Muslim cleric to set foot in the 14th century to spread Islam in Central Mindanao.

Sadain was voted as ARMM’s model official for his prudent handling from 2012 to October 2014 of P2 billion worth of infrastructure projects, whose funding details and programs of work were made open to the media and civil society organizations.

The DPWH-ARMM was also awarded by Hataman with a separate citation for having been the regional government’s “top performer” in terms of project implementation and continuing revitalization of its ranks into a functional organization.

The DPWH-ARMM was a known hotbed of corruption during the time of past regional governors.

“Our secretary deserves such award. We are thankful to all public works employees of the autonomous region for working hard enough for our department to become the regional government’s `top performer,’ which is for us an honorable feat,” said engineer Don Loong, deputy regional public works secretary.

The DPWH-ARMM had paved 158.907 kilometers of roads crisscrossing the region’s five provinces in the past two years.

The department has concreted more than a hundred kilometers of old roads in the region during the period, according to reports from its component district engineering offices.

Sadain said they have also constructed 46 water systems in remote towns from 2012 to October this year.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) had earlier commended the DPWH-ARMM for its religious implementation of OPAPP’s “roads to peace” projects, designed to interconnect rebel enclaves to municipal trading centers.

The OPAPP is implementing 307 costly community infrastructure projects through Sadain’s office.

Amir Mawalil, information director of ARMM, said Hataman, who had served as officer-in-charge of the autonomous region for more than a year prior to his election in 2013 as regional governor, helped oversee the projects of the DPWH-ARMM on ministerial capacity.

“Gov. Hataman did not have problems in the implementation of the projects of this agency,” Mawalil said.