New P20 M Basilan District Engineering Office inaugurated

COTABATO CITY --- Officials launched on Friday the new Basilan District Engineering Office whose projects authorities said are helping restore normalcy in the once troubled province.The inauguration of the new P20 million worth building was led by Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, his regional public works secretary, Don Loong, and Basilan’s district engineer, Soler Undug.The new DEO office is located at one spot in the 16-hectare ARMM government center in Barangay Santa Clara in Lamitan City, the capital of Basilan.The ARMM government is constructing a larger building in the same site to accommodate provincial offices in Basilan of different regional agencies.Engineers are expecting the completion of the multi-million ARMM provincial government center building before yearend.The outgoing commander of the Army’s 104thBrigade in Basilan, Brig. Gen. Juvymax Uy, said the location of the new DEO office is accessible to residents from all corners of the province. People can easily reach this new DEO office if they need something there. The ARMM projects implemented by the Basilan district engineer in the past six years brought in dramatic changes in the local security climate, Uy said Sunday.Uy will assume as deputy commander of the 6thInfantry Division in Maguindanao this week based on a directive issued by President Rodrigo Duterte on June 29, channeled through the office of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.Uy said he is expecting the surrender of more members of the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan once the DEO and Hataman’s office are done with the colossal P1 billion transcentral road project designed to cut through isolated areas in the center of the province.Portions of the highway now straddle through former lairs of the Abu Sayyaf in forested hinterlands. The almost 200 Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan who surrendered to the government in the past two years came down when they realized that life is easier now due to improving economic activities as a result of the projects of the Basilan DEO, Uy said.ARMM officials have also started releasing additional heavy equipment to different provinces to hasten the implementation of infrastructure projects complementing the southern Mindanao peace process.The new P58 million worth equipment package, comprised of three large excavators, four dump trucks and an amphibious excavator, was procured last month by the executive department of ARMM.The autonomous region, which coversMaguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the scattered Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi island provinces, has eight district engineering offices operating under the ministerial control of Hataman.The excavators, now in the ARMM capitol in Cotabato City, were turned over Friday to the district engineering offices in Lanao Del Sur, whose provincial capital is Marawi City.Hataman said the excavators are intended for infrastructure projects needed to hasten the recovery of areas affected by last year’s five-month siege of Marawi City by combined Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists.The conflict, which erupted May 23 and lasted until October 16, 2017, resulted in the deaths of hundreds, among them police and military personnel, dislocated some 300,000 villagers and left dozens of historic centuries-old dwelling enclaves there in ruins.