New fish port to benefit Maranaw fisherfolk

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - Officials are certain of the completion within two months of a multi-million port along the western side of Lake Lanao, designed to hasten the connectivity of Maranaw fisherfolk to local markets.

Engineer Don Mustapha Loong, public works secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and local officials in Ditsaan Ramain town in the first district of Lanao del Sur agreed to expedite the implementation of the project during an ocular inspection of construction works over the weekend.

The P5-million Barimbingan Port in Ditsaan Ramain will provide ethnic Maranaw fishermen a berthing facility where they can unload their daily catch of fish from Lake Lanao, which is Asia’s largest.

Loong said the project is being bankrolled with a grant from the ARMM’s 2015 infrastructure subsidy.

“This project is intended to improve the lives of the people in Lanao de Sur province, according to the development agenda of the present ARMM administration, which is parallel with the Mindanao peace initiative of President Benigno Aquino IIII,” Loong said.

While in Lanao del Sur, Loong also inspected several other infrastructure projects of the ARMM government, among them the P10 million Pugaan Bridge in Ditsaan Ramain, which is part of the provincial circumferential arterial network, which straddles through municipalities along Lake Lanao.

The ARMM’s Department of Public Works, which is operating under the ministerial control of the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, and local officials are also presently rehabilitating the Ramain Bridge in the same town with an approved allocation of P12.7 million.

The ARMM regional government has earmarked P1.4 billion for various infrastructure projects in Lanao del Sur this year.

The projects to be funded out the 2015 infrastructure package for Lanao del Sur were designed to hasten the restoration of normalcy in the province, a known stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The ARMM also covers Maguindanao, which is in Central Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan.