Shariff Aguak officials acquire heavy equipment pool

MAGUINDANAO --- What the late Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. failed to provide his hometown during a 20-year reign, his newcomer relative-politicians addressed in just four months.
The neophyte Marop Ampatuan, elected mayor of Shariff Aguak only last May 9, had just procured P47 million-worth of heavy equipment for their local government unit, a need his predecessors failed to focus their attention on.The Shariff Aguak LGU did not even have a functional truck for disposal of garbage when Datu Andal and his two sons, Zaldy and Anwar, both jailed in connection with the infamous Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre, served as mayors one after another after from the 1980s to 2009.What proliferated during that time in Shariff Aguak and nearby towns under the political principality of Datu Andal were private militias of local executives who owned flashy 4x4 vehicles and wore imported signature clothes and very costly Rolex watches.Datu Andal, who was Maguindanao governor for three consecutive terms, died of liver cancer last year while in detention for allegedly masterminding the massacre of 58 people, among them 32 journalists, in an election-related incident that shook the nation to its core.Zaldy was governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for two terms. His second term as ARMM's chief executive that was to last until 2011 was cut short by his incarceration.The new equipment pool of the Shariff Aguak LGU was procured by the incumbent mayor using funds loaned from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

The loan application had full imprimatur from the Shariff Aguak Sangguniang Bayan, chaired by the father of Mayor Marop, the incumbent Vice Mayor Akmad. The bank’s having lend us a big amount of money was a tacit indication that it believes in our LGU’s capability to return the borrowed amount in a seven-year repayment period, said the 33-year-old Mayor Marop, a civil engineer.Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on Thursday said he was elated with the acquisition by the Shariff Aguak LGU of the P47 million-worth road-building equipment. Local governance in that part of Maguindanao is indeed improving, Mangudadatu said.The equipment pool, comprised of dump trucks, a backhoe, a payloader, a compactor, a grader and a garbage truck, was delivered early this week by a supplier that gave the lowest price quotation for each unit in a transparent procurement process facilitated by state auditors and representatives from the state-run DBP. Abby Aguak, chairman of Shariff Aguak’s Barangay Poblacion, said he and his constituents are thankful to their LGU for allocating a fraction from the loan for a garbage collection truck. We never had a garbage disposal program in our barangay, which is the center of the municipality, because past mayors did not care having one, Aguak said.The newcomer Akmad, elected vice mayor only last May 9 as running mate of his now mayor-son, has personally been managing sanitation drives involving volunteers, among them more than 300 former drug dependents and peddlers who had promised over the Qur’an to reform for good.A group of former drug peddlers had earlier planted hundreds of forest trees on denuded spots in Shariff Aguak as part of the LGU’s environmental protection thrusts.Reny Digay, chairman of Barangay Kuloy in the outskirt of Shariff Aguak, said he and his constituents are certain of an efficient maintenance now of the farm-to-market roads connecting local farming enclaves to the public market at the town center. With good roads, productivity of farmers will improve, Digay said.