BRIDGE program building houses for poor ARMM residents

COTABATO CITY ---- A pro-poor government program is building 1,538 core shelters for impoverished families in five southern provinces, among them now reforming former Abu Sayyaf militants.Documents from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment (ARMM-BRIDGE) programindicated that the houses are being built with the help of the district engineering offices in the five provinces.The core shelter thrust is part of the four amenities dubbed apat na dapat, or food, clean water, housing and electricity, for ARMM’s poor villagers.The projects of the ARMM-BRIDGE are being bankrolled by the office of Gov. Mujiv Hataman, now in his second term as chief executive of the autonomous region.David Ali, manager of ARMM-BRIDGE, and regional officials discussed this week issues and concerns pertaining to the housing initiative as part of a periodic assessment scheme meant to determine the impact of the project.Ali reported during the meeting that in 2017 alone, their project management office distributed food to 5,000 poor families in remote barrios in keeping with their apat na dapat humanitarian objectives.He said 102 barangays that they are serving have complied with the requisites set by the Cooperative Development Authority for subsequent registration into community livelihood organizations.Beneficiary-communities in 22 barangays had been organized into cooperatives, to be assisted by the CDA and the Department of Science and Technology-ARMM.Just last week, hundreds of Meranao families affected by last year’s hostilities in Marawi City received food from the ARMM-BRIDGE office.Some of the recipients are residents of the hinterland Butig town in Lanao del Sur, ravaged by conflicts sparked by the hoisting there in 2014 of the black Islamic State flag by the Maute terror group.Workers of ARMM-BRIDGE distributed food to families in Lanao del Sur’s Picong, Balabagan, Madamba, Lumba-Bayabao, Balindong, Saguiaran, Mulondo, Butig, and Ditsaan-Ramain towns last week.Ali said they monitor and record the weight children of beneficiary-families periodically to determine the effects of the feeding activity.He said 900 Meranao families in Lanao del Sur received food supplies from ARMM-BRIDGE last week.The ARMM-BRIDGE will expand in the coming weeks its dispersal of food rations in Piagapo, Lumbaca Unayan, Lumbayanague, Bubong Ramain, Kapai, Ganassi, Madalum, Masiu, Kapatagan, all in Lanao del Sur, and in Marawi City.The conflict-stricken Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur.The feeding thrusts of ARMM-BRIDGE targets what program planners and researchers call the poorest of the poor in isolated barangays in the autonomous region.ARMM-BRIDGE workers have distributed food supplies to families in far-flung barangays in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in separate operations early on.The program is also constructing hundreds of core shelters for now reforming former Abu Sayyaf militants who have surrendered and pledged allegiance to the Philippine flag, now being reintegrated into mainstream society by the present ARMM administration.