2 more Maguindanao towns get dev't grants

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Two more towns in Maguindanao on Thursday received development grants from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as part of the agency’s Bottoms Up Budgeting (BUB) program.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and Regional Agriculture Secretary Makmod Mending Jr. facilitated the release of the BUB project allocations to Ramon Piang and Salik Mamasabulod, mayors of Maguindanao’s North Upi and Pagalungan towns, respectively, before journalists covering the regional government.

Piang, whose town is located in the first district of Maguindanao, said he is grateful to the ARMM government for allocating P3 million for a farm-to-market road, and P2.5 million for an organic agriculture and high value crops propagation program.

The road project in North Upi will connect Moro and ethnic Teduray enclaves in Barangay Katalufak to the town proper where they can sell their products.

More than 80 percent of the heads of Moro and non-Muslim Teduray families in Barangay Katalufak rely on corn farming and propagation of orchard trees as main sources of income.

The local government unit of Pagalungan received P1.5 million for a farm-to-market road and P600,000 for an organic farming project involving Moro farmers, among them members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Hataman, Mending, ARMM Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman and the region’s health secretary, physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., also launched the regional government’s expanded “Gulayan sa Barangay” project.

Mending said the vegetable farming project will initially involve 1,200 farmers in different parts of the autonomous region.

“This will help address the high incidence of malnutrition in most parts of the region, particularly in areas hit by recent calamities and those badly affected by armed conflicts in recent years,” Mending said.

Mending’s office earlier facilitated the release of BUB grants earmarked for various agricultural projects in several towns in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.