Port operation Linis

Port operation Linis. Polloc Port Manager Muharim Mohammad,(2nd from Left) ARMM Deputy Executive Secretary Abdullah Cusain (left), Nituan, Parang, Maguindanao Barangay Chairman Sukarni Salazar (right), representing Parang Mayor Talib Abo, and Polloc Barangay Chairman Oting Esmail (2nd from right)lead the operation linis last January 30 in pursuit of their concerted efforts to operationalize fully the regional port under the administration of acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong. The day-long ground cleaning activity was participated in also by personnel from the local Maritime office, Philippine Navy, the Parang municipal government and the Taskgroup Polloc. (Omar Mangorsi / bpi-armm)

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)

ARMM cooperatives improvement forum

ARMM cooperatives improvement forum. Mahendra Madjilon, cooperative development authority administrator of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, (inset photo left) delivers the opening remarks as his district workers from the five component provinces listen at the recent three-day training on cooperative re-registration in ARMM in Cotabato City recently. The affairs was graced by Marites Hwang (center) of the CDA central office and ARMM Bureau of Public Information executive director Ali G. Macabalang, (right) who addressed the opening rites as guest speaker on behalf of ARMM Chief of Staff Avecina V. Alonto. (omar mangorsi/bpi-armm)

ARMM’s campus journalism

ARMM’s campus journalism. A lady lecturer on editorial writing teaches selected group of students engaged in campus journalism from schools in relatively peaceful areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at a recent regional training held in Cotabato City by the ARMM’s Department of Education (DepEd). Meanwhile, DepEd central office representatives are due to arrive in Maguindanao on Jan. 28 to conduct psychological orientation on teachers and pupils believed to have been traumatized after the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 58 people including 31 journalists and its resultant martial law imposition. Acting ARMM Governor Hookie Alonto-Adiong has ordered the distribution of relief goods by social welfare workers and the conduct of medical mission by physicians for affected pupils in conjunction with the psychological interventions program. (Omar Mangorsi / bpi-armm)

100 midwives deployed in Tawi-Tawi

(Ref: Ali G. Macabalang, BPI-ARMM, Jan. 27, 2010)

COTABATO CITY – The provincial government of Tawi-Tawi has launched an outreach program dubbed as “Project 100 RUBIES” deploying 100 midwives across the province including dozens of villages in islets where lack of health workers has been causing enormous deaths.

RUBIES is an acronym for reaching underserved barangays through initiative for enhancement of services, a derivative from the name of Tawi-Tawi Vice Governor Ruby Sahali-Tan, who earlier conceived and launched the program grand ceremonies attended by dignitaries here last January 23.

Starting from the launching day, Sahali-Tan said, the provincial government will embark on “mass hiring of 100 midwives to be deployed in the most critical and underserved barangays” in the 11 towns, mostly in islands, of Tawi-Tawi.

Tawi-Tawi is one of five component provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which, according to government statistics, profusely lag behind in rural health and medical services.

“Our provincial government is cognizant of the need for a more aggressive approach to address the poor state of maternal and child health services in the province,” the lady vice governor said.

The health department function have been devolved to the ARMM government, but “the provincial government is …also accountable for the health of its constituents and has the mandate to support the regional government and the provincial health office in (their) undertakings to improve the health outcomes in the Region,” she said.

The deployment of 100 midwives is aimed at “reducing mortalities in Tawi-Tawi by halves from 20 to 10 maternal deaths and 159 to 100 infant deaths by the end of 2010,” Sahali-Tan pointed out.

“Tragically, the death of a mother is heartbreaking. It has many consequences, not least of which is the reduced probability of survival of her children and her newborn child is most likely to die too. A mother’s life is so precious and for each baby being born is a gift from God for a family to show affection, love and care,” she stressed.

Citing statistics, she said the ARMM has a maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 320 per 100,000 live-births or nearly double the risk of women elsewhere in the country (172 per 100,000 live-births).

In the entire ARMM, only 42% of the women who died of maternal causes received medical attendance (NSO 2004). The Maternal Mortality Ratio reflects the women’s basic health status, access to health care and the quality of health care in the rural areas, statistics showed.

Meanwhile, Sahali-Tan alongside Sulu Governor Sakur Tan expressed enthusiasm in operating principles of “transparent, consultative and moral governance” of the new ARMM leadership under acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong. (AGM/bpi-armm)

ARMM strategic planning. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao acting Governor Hookie Alonto-Adiong (right standing) huddles with ARMM treasury officials at the recent five-day strategic planning in Cagayan de Oro City for their two-year development plan, 2010-2011. He shifted from one to another in what was perceived to be his way of getting cordial rapport with his subbordinates. Shown standing is Chief Regional Planner Adel Dumagay and (seated) ARMM Regional Treasurer Kanggo Umal and Assistant Treasurer Kasan Panawidan. The convergence was also attended by the five provincial governors and two city mayors of ARMM, who belong to the ARMM planning board, which approved the strategies and fund allocations discussed in the planning sessions. (Ali G. Macabalang)

ARMM dev’t direction refreshed

-January 21, 2010

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Line departments and offices of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao ended here yesterday (Thursday) their three-day strategic planning workshop, drafting a two-year development package aimed at bringing the impoverished ARMM communities to greater heights.

Some 70 heads and technical personnel of the ARMM’s agencies and offices threshed out problems besetting the region and proposed the corresponding solutions in three successive days of deliberations attended personally by acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong.

The two-year development plan, which has been collated from the proposals of participating departments and bureaus, will be tackled further for adoption by the Regional Economic and Development Planning Board (REDPB), the ARMM’s highest policy-making body chaired by Adiong.

The REDPB, which opens today (Friday) their two-day meeting at the same venue here, is composed of the governors of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, the mayors of Marawi and Lamitan cities and the tops officials of the ARMM regional legislative assembly (RLA).

At the opening of the preceding workshop Tuesday, Adiong addressed the participants, citing among others funding supports from national and foreign sources now in the pipeline that include a $30-million package earmarked by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank (WB).

In his brief speech, Adiong said the national and foreign-funded development projects will be proportionately spread across the ARMM component areas to meet the social, economic, infrastructure and peace and order concerns of the target areas.

“Let us pursue our development thrusts and address squarely the grey areas under the principle of transparent, consultative and moral governance,” said Adiong, who sat and exchanged ideas with the participants in their respective tables in an unprecedented fashion for an ARMM chief executive.

Malacanang through Interior and Local Governments Secretary Ronaldo Puno installed to office Adiong last December 14 in lieu of ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, who has been suspended and detained in connection with the Nov. 23 massacre in Maguindanao of 57 people including 31 journalists.

Over the weekend, Sulu Governor Sakur Tan and Tawi-Tawi vice Governor Ruby Sahali-Tan expressed their cooperation with the new ARMM leadership, saying they were optimistic that Adiong would be able to “achieve reforms in the regional bureaucracy and deliver better services to the populace.” (AGM / BPI-ARMM)