AusAID grants $5-M fund for ARMM’s education projects

January 29, 2010


COTABATO CITY - The Australian government has granted $5-million more fund for education projects and programs in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in what acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong described as a boost to concerted efforts of improving the quality of education and other related gray areas in the region.

Titon Mitra, Minister-Counselor for Development Cooperation of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and Adiong signed on Jan. 27 of an agreement providing for the grant of the $5-million grant this year to the ARMM regional government, Regional Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo said.

The signing rites were held at the Australian Embassy in Manila and witnessed by other AusAID top officials including Peter Bartu, adviser on peace and conflict development cooperation. Sec. Sinarimbo was also a witness to the ceremonies, he said.

The grant will be used in the extension of another year in the implementation of the program on Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM), including the crafting of the new program on education in the ARMM. The BEAM program in the region ended last year.

Meanwhile, Sinarimbo also bared that apart from the good news from the AusAID, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) board has approved the request of the ARMM Social Fund Program (ASFP) for a fresh US$30-million loan for various infrastructure facilities and good governance-building programs in the autonomous region.

Sinarimbo said acting ARMM Governor Adiong was informed of the NEDA board’s favorable decision shortly after the signing rites on the AusAID fund grant.

In an earlier interview, ASFP Project Manager Engr. Nasser Sinarimbo said the new Word Bank fund will be used in the region’s 596 barangays that do not have ASFP projects before.

Sinarimbo said the World Bank and ARMM will set the criteria and the guidelines for selection and identification of projects identified by the stakeholders of these barangays.

ASFP started in the ARMM in 2005 and has been extended twice upon request of recipient local government units in the region. ARMM covers Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan. (Jo Henry/bpi-armm)