New P46.6 million engineering office rising in Buluan

MAGUINDANAO ---- Stakeholders were elated with the launching on Wednesday of a P46.1 million engineering office in Maguindanao, the first since the creation of the province in 1974.The facility, to rise on a roadside lot in the center of Buluan, the new capital of Maguindanao, will function as main operation base of the Second District Engineering Office in the province under Engineer James Mlok.Mlok and Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu led the inaugural groundbreaking rite for the construction of the building on a land donated by the governor’s family, adjacent to the new provincial capitol now being constructed using funds borrowed from the Land Bank of the Philippines.Mangudadatu is expecting the completion of the new capitol building before his third and last term as provincial governor ends on June 30, 2019.Buluan town is located in the second district of Maguindanao.The temporary office since the 1970s of the Maguindanao Second DEO is in Cotabato City, more than a hundred kilometers from Buluan, the seat of the provincial government.The office of the Maguindanao First DEO is also in Cotabato City.Key officials of the league of municipal mayors in Maguindanao told reporters Wednesday they are thankful to Mangudadatu, the Maguindanao Second DEO and the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for embarking on the project.Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said Thursday the transfer of the Maguindanao Second DEO to Buluan will hasten the implementation of infrastructure projects meant improve the productivity of farmers in nearby towns.Violent religious extremists operating in the fashion of the Islamic State are inciting local residents to join their fold using underdevelopment and poverty to hype their cause. There have been dramatic improvements lately in the security situation in areas in Maguindanao where there are concrete farm-to-market roads, agricultural facilities, school buildings and other infrastructures that disprove the assertions of these militant groups, Sobejana said.Mlok and Mangudadatu are cooperating in the implementation of infrastructure projects of the provincial government and the ARMM executive department. We are putting up a very functional provincial government center in Buluan, Mangudadatu said Wednesday after the symbolic kickoff rite for the construction of the new P46.1 worth DEO building.Mangudadatu and Mlok have agreed to help each other workout the gradual relocation of the equipment and personnel of the Maguindanao Second DEO once the new facility is operational.