Construction of P100 million worth Maguindanao government center begins

MAGUINDANAO --- Stakeholders launched Monday the construction of a P100 million worth Maguindanao government center, a springboard for activities meant to help the province bounce back from conflicts and calamities.
The project is a joint venture of the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The facility, to rise on a strategic spot in Buluan, the capital town of Maguindanao, shall also have a sports center for Maguindanao’s Muslim Christian and Lumad communities.
In a nutshell, it shall become a fulcrum of governance and a sports facility which we can use to foster harmony among the `tri-people’ in Maguindanao, Mangudadatu said.
By tri-people, Mangudadatu meant his Moro, Christian and indigenous non-Muslim highland Lumad constituents.

Maguindanao, a component province of ARMM, has 36 towns divided into two congressional districts. Mangudadatu and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman led Monday’s symbolic kickoff rite for the project, bankrolled with a P100 million allocation from President Rodrigo Duterte, channelled through the regional government.

The event was witnessed by ARMM's local government secretary, Kirby Abdullah, and Engineer James Mlok of the Second District Engineering Office of Maguindanao.

I am grateful to President Duterte and the present ARMM regional leadership for helping us out on this endeavour. From this facility good governance initiatives shall take off, said Mangudadatu, now in his third and last term as Maguindanao provincial governor.
The lot where the provincial government center shall sit is about a hundred meters away from the rising Maguindanao provincial capitol building.
The large capitol building, being constructed using a loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines, is expected to be complete by yearend.
Hataman said the Maguindanao government center must become a strong icon of good governance in the province.
There have been dramatic improvements in Maguindanao in recent years, Hataman said.
Maguindanao has the largest share in foreign investments poured into ARMM by capitalists in the past seven years.
Just last week, the Regional Board of Investments-ARMM approved the application of the Ekasalam AgriVentures Corporation to put up a P290 million worth Cavendish banana plantation in the province.More than a dozen Cavendish banana and oil palm plantations were established in different towns in Maguindanao by foreign investors in recent years.

Besides Maguindanao, the autonomous region also covers Lanao del Sur and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Hataman lauded the provincial government of Maguindanao for rebuilding the conflict-wracked province into an investment hub.
Maguindanao is a major beneficiary of infrastructure projects funded by the ARMM government.