Lanao del Sur gov't showers residents with infra projects

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines - Outgoing Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. wants to be remembered as having implemented flagship road network projects designed to interconnect towns and hasten socio-economic engagements among Maranaw communities.  

Adiong’s third and last term as chief executive of the province, which has 39 towns, will end on June 30, 2016.

Records obtained on Monday from the provincial government indicated that from 2008 to 2015 alone, the Adiong administration constructed 224 barangay roads, 32 provincial and 12 bridges during the period.

Adiong’s office had also built, in recent years, 55 “tire paths,” eight pathways, 11 foot bridges and roads straddling through dozens of peasant enclaves, connecting Lanao del Sur to Lanao del Norte and Bukidnon, both in Region 10.

Some of the recently implemented infrastructure projects in the province were multilateral development initiatives of Adiong, the office of Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the 39 mayors in the province.

The ARMM government poured into Lanao del Sur, during the past three years, more than P3 billion worth of infrastructure grants.

“We are grateful to ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman for focusing attention on the need to put up infrastructure projects in Lanao del Sur,” Adiong said.

Adiong on Tuesday said he had also provided with streetlights strategic spots in Lanao del Sur, whose capital is Marawi City, the administrative and political seat of the province.

Adiong said at least 934, 000 people are now benefitting from his infrastructure projects, which included improvements of town centers under his jurisdiction.

The road network projects of the provincial government were meant to sustain continuing fellowships, through traditional gatherings among Maranaw clans, to minimize “rido” cases, which is prevalent in some areas in Lanao del Sur.

The term rido means clan war in the Maranaw dialect, which can be triggered by land disputes, or political differences, or affronts to family honor.

“The closer the families become, the lesser they become vulnerable to rido,” Adiong said.

The Adiong administration is known in the autonomous region to have amicably settled 139 deadly, decades-old rido in recent years, setting a record never achieved by provincial governors who had served in decades past.

Adiong said he had also supported the peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during his three-year tenure.

“I will continue to support the government-MILF peace initiative even if I am no longer provincial governor,” Adiong said.

There are more than a dozen government-acknowledged MILF enclaves in Lanao del Sur.

The founder of the MILF, the late Egyptian-trained cleric Salamat Hashim, an ethnic Maguindanaon, died in Butig town in Lanao del Sur in 2003 and was buried somewhere there, in a spot known only to loyal followers.

Adiong said he is thankful to the support of the MILF leadership in Lanao del Sur, the provincial council of elders and the Maranaw religious communities for helping him amicably address dozens of rido cases in the province.