ARMM builds large gymnasium in Basilan school campus

ISABELA CITY --- There is a new gymnasium now in the city designed for 10,000 occupants which officials intend to use for activities meant to foster solidarity among local Muslim and Christian communities.Isal Ibrahim, acting principal of the Basilan National High School (BNHS) here, on Saturday said the gymnasium was inaugurated on Monday.
The new facility inside the BNHS campus was constructed using a P10 million allocation from the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Isabela City, former capital of the island province of Basilan, is not part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao but hundreds of students from nearby ARMM towns study in the BNHS.
The new capital of Basilan, Lamitan City, is only 27 kilometers from Isabela, which is in Basilan but is administratively under Region 9.
We are very thankful to the ARMM government for this gymnasium project, Ibrahim said.

The newly-built gymnasium was launched on March 6 by BNHS faculty members, local executives and ARMM officials led by the region’s chief executive, Mujiv Hataman, his regional public works secretary, Engineer Don Loong, and Engineer Soler Undug, chief of the Basilan District Engineering Office.
Ibrahim said Hataman wants the BNHS administration to open the gymnasium to peace-building activities and dialogues complementing the Southern Mindanao peace process. This gymnasium is a blessing. Our old auditorium is already almost dilapidated and is now unsafe for big gatherings, Ibrahim said.
He said Muslim and Christian students from barangays in Isabela, from Lamitan City and the 11 towns in Basilan now have a new gymnasium conducive to peace dialogues and other extra-curricular activities.

Ibrahim said he is also thankful to Undug, who is Basilan’s chief district engineer, for having constructed the gymnasium according to specifications.