JICA builds 12 schools to complement peace, development efforts in South

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is constructing 12 two-story school buildings in impoverished towns to complement the peace and development component of the Southern Mindanao peace process.

The 12 buildings, which have eight classrooms each, were constructed jointly by JICA and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Social Fund Project (ASFP).

Seven of the buildings are now fully finished but beautification of their surroundings still have to be done. Construction of five more having the same specifications are underway, one of them to rise in Bubong, Lanao del Sur to be named Datu Mamintal Adiong Memorial High School, with has an P8.9 million budget.

The ASFP is the conduit for costly projects of JICA and the World Bank in far-flung communities in the autonomous region.

Domingo Guariño, team leader of local JICA consultants helping oversee the school building projects, said they expect all construction work to be fully completed by December next year.

Engineer Nasser Sinarimbo, ASFP manager, said the school building project is a common initiative of the government and JICA meant to provide quality education to poor sectors in the South.

JICA has been actively helping push forward the Mindanao peace process through its costly projects complementing the socio-economic component of the now 12-year negotiation between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The Japanese government has also been helping enforce the government-MILF ceasefire through its civilian representatives to the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, whose members include soldiers and policemen from Malaysia, Brunei and Libya, and non-uniformed monitors from Norway and the European Union.