Bangsamoro LGUs receive good governance citations

COTABATO CITY — More than 20 local government units in six southern provinces earned efficiency, resiliency, innovation and dynamism awards from an agency of the Bangsamoro region in a symbolic rite in Cotabato City on Thursday.

There are 116 towns and three cities in the six provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao — Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, all in mainland Mindanao, and in the scattered island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Among the LGUs that got awards from the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that capped off the 4th Bangsamoro Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Summit on Thursday is Lamitan City in Basilan that has received, in the past seven years, six Seal of Good Local Governance, or SGLG, from the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The yearly LGU competitiveness summit of the MTIT-BARMM, along with the Department of Trade and Industry, is part of an initiative aiming to build trust and confidence of local and foreign investors on the efficiency of the municipal, city and provincial governments in the autonomous region.

BARMM’s trade, industry and tourism minister, Abuamri Taddik, had told reporters present in Thursday’s event at a function facility, in the compound here of the EM Manor Hotel, that they are doing their best to project to outsiders that LGUs in the Bangsamoro region are just as competitive and functional as those in other parts of the country.

Besides the Lamitan LGU, the city governments of Cotabato and Marawi also received separate awards for efficiency, resiliency and innovation from the MTIT-BARMM.

Key officials of the MTIT-BARMM, among them Director General Rosslaine Alonto-Sinarimbo and a senior ministry staff, Mustapha Ala Jr., cooperated in facilitating the awarding event, attended by local executives from six provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro region.

The remotest towns whose LGUs had received special awards too during the event were Sumisip, Lantawan and Maluso, all in Basilan, Jolo and Maimbung, both in Sulu, and Bongao, the capital of Tawi-Tawi.

In separate statements Friday, two senior members of the Lamitan City Business Chamber, Rima Hassan and Clarito San Juan, said that they were elated with their LGU’s having received special citations during the 4th Bangsamoro Cities and Municipalities Competitive Summit.

“Our LGU deserves those awards. To the MTIT-BARMM, we are thankful. The awards our LGU got last Thursday can prove that it has visible functionality and efficiency in governance. That is something important in creating a good investment climate in our city,” San Juan told reporters on Friday morning.

Lamitan City and neighboring towns in Basilan are now together touted as the new investment hub in the BARMM, ideal for large-scale agricultural projects.