Infra projects link ARMM communities to other markets

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Not only is the public works department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) interconnecting ARMM towns now with concrete roads, but linking local peasant enclaves with markets in Regions 10 and 12 as well.

Among these ongoing arterial network projects under ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his engineers, Don Mustapha Loong and James Mlok, is the concreting of a road connecting the town of Datu Paglas in the second district of Maguindanao to Columbio, Sultan Kudarat.

Columbio, home to mixed ethnic Bilaan, Maguindanaon and Visayan residents, is a hinterland municipality in Sultan Kudarat in Region 12.

Mlok, chief of Maguindanao’s 2nd District Engineering Office (DEO), said the first phase of the road project, covering a span of 4.3 kilometers and funded out of ARMM’s 2013 infrastructure subsidy from the national coffers, is now 95 percent done.

Mlok said the second phase of the project, with a length of 2.6 kilometers, being constructed with allocation from ARMM’s 2014 infrastructure budget, is now almost 50 percent complete.

Mohammad Paglas, the mayor of Datu Paglas, said he and his Muslim and Christian constituents are thankful to Hataman, whom he tagged as “reformist governor,” for putting up the Datu Paglas-Columbio road project.

“The residents of Datu Paglas are grateful to Gov. Hataman for this project and for many other projects of the regional government in the municipality, something never done by past ARMM governors,” Paglas said.

Mlok and Loong, who is secretary of ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways, on Saturday accompanied reporters to far-flung areas in the second district of Maguindanao to show infrastructure projects designed to hasten the socioeconomic growth of recipient communities.

Among these projects is a Bailey bridge connecting both banks of the Tukanalipao River in the now infamous Mamasapano town.

The Bailey bridge was built just meters away from the scene of the deadly Jan. 25, 2015 encounter between operatives of the police’s elite Special Action Force, guerillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and gunmen from a third group, the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

The firefights, which lasted for more than 10 hours, left 44 policemen, 17 MILF members and five innocent villagers dead.

A newly concreted 880-meter farm-to-market road now connects the bridge to the center of Barangay Tukanalipao, passing by a P500,000 worth mosque recently constructed by members of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division using grants from Hataman’s office.