Basilan’s once underdeveloped Maluso town now progressing
COTABATO CITY --- The 44th founding anniversary celebration of the now peaceful Maluso town in Basilan this week brought together key leaders in the island province.
Among the many officials who graced the event were Gov. Jim Salliman, Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman, who is lone congressional representative of the island province, and local officials led by Mayor Hanie Bud.
The festivity was capped off with various activities, among them the inauguration of the new municipal government operations center built on a s strategic upland area in the municipality.
The Maluso LGU received three Seal of Good Local Governance citations in the past three years from the central Office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government for its efficiency and extensive peace and security programs benefiting the local communities.
Predecessors of the now second-termer Bud, former regional ports management chief of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have never focused attention on constructing an ideal municipal hall as strong semblance of government during their terms.
The new Maluso LGU center was started as a joint project of Hataman, while he was yet ARMM regional governor, and the Maluso local government unit.
Maluso has been rising fast from its being conflict-wracked into a progressive town through the cooperation of its LGU and the office of Salliman, who is now in his second term as Basilan governor.
Hataman has also been helping sustain, now through his office in the House of Representatives, the infrastructure thrusts of the Basilan provincial government and its constituent-LGUs in the cities of Lamitan and Isabela and in the 11 towns in the island province.