ARMM government center in Basilan nearing completion

COTABATO CITY --- Engineers are rushing the completion of a government center in Basilan as a conduit of various agencies to local folk and Abu Sayyaf members now returning to mainstream society.More than a hundred members of the Abu Sayyaf surrendered to authorities in the province in the past 18 months.They are now being organized into cooperatives while undergoing religious reorientation by moderate Muslim theologians.The P150 million worth facility in Barangay Santa Clara, Lamitan City will group together provincial branches of different agencies under the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.The project is a joint initiative of ARMM’s public works department, the Basilan District Engineering Office, the Freyfill Construction Company and the office of the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman. This facility will bring government closer to the Muslim and Christian dwellers in Basilan. It will be a big boost to efforts of fostering peace and sustainable development in the province, said Hadja Nuriya Jamaldin, assistant superintendent of public schools in Basilan.For now, people in Basilan need to travel to the ARMM capitol in Cotabato City in the far away central Mindanao for transactions with any of the government offices under the autonomous region.Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, the capital of Basilan, said the ARMM government center being constructed now in Barangay Sta. Clara will usher in improvements in their local economy. It will create an impression among potential investors outside that the investment climate here in Lamitan City is good because the center will be a strong semblance of government in this part of the country, Furigay said on Sunday.ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said on Sunday that socio-economic projects meant to provide marginalized sectors, including former Abu Sayyaf members in the province, shall be dispensed from the regional government’s provincial center in Barangay Santa Clara.The construction of the center, comprised of separate buildings, began early this year and is expected to be accomplished in early 2018.ARMM officials are anticipating the surrender of more Abu Sayyaf members in the coming months as a result of the government’s unrelenting crackdown and the massive implementation of infrastructure projects in areas once controlled by the group.Among the areas in Basilan recently cleared from Abu Sayyaf occupation through joint interventions by the military, the police and government agencies devolved by Malacañang to the ARMM is Barangay Macalang in Al-Barka town.Al-Barka repeatedly hit the news in past years due to the deadly encounters there between Abu Sayyaf bandits and government security forces.Many soldiers killed in the hostilities there were even decapitated by Abu Sayyaf bandits.Among the rehabilitation programs now of the ARMM government for former Abu Sayyaf bandits are remedial religious trainings in government-accredited Islamic schools run by moderate Islamic theologians.The ARMM has an outfit, the Madaris Education Bureau, whose teachers, all clerics, help educate students in far-flung areas on Islamic values on fraternalism, religious tolerance and inter-faith solidarity among Muslims and non-Muslims.Most of the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan who surrendered recently had stated, on video cameras, that they decided to return to the fold of law after newly-built concrete roads crisscrossing remote areas in the province made their bastions so accessible to military combat vehicles and police patrol cars. We are very thankful that there are these infrastructure facilities now in the province that caused the influence of the Abu Sayyaf on local communities to dwindle, said Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command.Galvez said the Westmincom is ready to provide teams of soldiers to secure the P150 million worth government center in Barangay Sta. Clara once operational.The project, being supervised jointly by Engineer Don Loong, who is regional secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways-ARMM, and Basilan’s district engineer, Soler Undug, is funded with allocations from the yearly infrastructure subsidy of the autonomous region.