Lamitan gets P126 M worth of road projects

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Lamitan City Mayor Rose Furigay had never thought the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will entrust to her P126 million worth of road projects in areas under her jurisdiction.

“That is something we in Lamitan City are so glad about. That’s a manifestation of ARMM’s trust on our capability to handle such costly projects for our city,” said Furigay.

Furigay, ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his public works secretary, engineer Don Mustapha Loong, on Friday signed in Cotabato City  a memorandum of agreement (MOA) entrusting the amount to the office of the city mayor.

The chief of the Basilan District Engineering Office, engineer Soler Undog, also affixed his signature to the MOA.

Loong said the P126 million is earmarked for the concreting of the six-kilometer road connecting Isabela City to Barangay Bohe Nange in Lamitan City and the 4.5-kilometer artery linking Barangay Bohe Nange to Sta. Clara District west of Lamitan City.

Loong said the projects shall be implemented by the city government of Lamitan, which has a pool of road-building equipment that can be used for the concreting of the thoroughfares.

“Essentially, the implementation of these projects `by administration’ is also a capacity-building process for local officials and the city government of Lamitan in terms of handling state-funded projects,” Hataman said.

The Hataman administration forged in months past dozens of MOAs for high-impact infrastructure projects, with local government units in the autonomous region.

Loong said the projects are being monitored using drone technology, satellite-based geo-tagging systems and actual site inspections by engineers.

Furigay said the new road projects the ARMM government entrusted to her administration will help improve the productivity of farmers in peasant communities the arteries are to interconnect.

“Lamitan City has improved a lot in the past three years because of the pouring in of so many projects in the area by the ARMM government,” Furigay said.

Lamitan City, capital of the island province of Basilan, has 40 barangays that are home to mixed Muslim and Christian residents.

Hataman and Loong also signed on Friday at the Office of the Regional Governor in Cotabato City separate MOAs with LGUs for a P5.2 million road project and the construction of a P5 million water system in Bacolod-Kalawi and Tubaran towns in Lanao del Sur province, respectively.

Furigay said involving LGUs in the implementation of costly projects will also help correct wrong notions by people outside of ARMM that local executives in the autonomous region are administratively incompetent.

“In Basilan alone, multi-million projects being implemented by LGUs that are funded by the ARMM are flourishing everywhere,” Furigay said.