COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The chief executive of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Friday received an award from the Bulong Pulungan media forum for his efficient governance of ARMM.
Amir Mawalil, director of ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information, said Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman, who hails from Basilan, received the Excellence in Public Service Award in the presence of President Benigno Aquino III during a lavish gathering of Bulong Pulungan members at the Sofitel Hotel in Manila last Friday.
Bulong Pulungan is a media forum organized in 1986 by a group of women journalists committed to providing Filipinos with vital news information and educational inputs on community issues and other concerns of national interest.
Mawalil said the media group is comprised of Deedee Sytangco, who was press undersecretary of former President Corazon Aquino, Manila Bulletin columnist Julie Yap Daza, Philippine Star columnist Domini Torrevillas and many other women journalists connected with different news outfits.
The president was the guest of honor in Friday’s activity of the Bulong Pulungan.
Hataman was the first public official to receive such an award from the group since its inception 28 years ago.
“The award Gov. Hataman received was so meaningful, coming immediately after he delivered his SORA (state of the region address) in Cotabato City where he underscored his administration’s accomplishments in the past two years,” said lawyer Laisa Alamia, ARMM’s regional executive secretary.
Hataman was accompanied to the venue of the Bulong Pulungan rites by a volunteer consultant of the ARMM government, Oblate priest Eliseo Mercado Jr., director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, a partner of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany.
Mawalil said President Aquino lauded the Bulong Pulungan in a speech during the event.