Basilan's ex-shabu capital bags good governance award anew

BASILAN, Philippines — The erstwhile politically-troubled “shabu capital” of this island province again bagged the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) award, the second since 2017.

The reelectionist mayor of Maluso, Hanie Bud, said Saturday credit has to go to his constituent-leaders in their 20 barangays for helping him restore normalcy in the municipality.

Maluso first bagged the SGLG in 2017 and, subsequently, got the citation again this year.

The grant of the yearly SGLG by the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government acknowledges the efficiency of recipient-local government units in addressing domestic socio-economic and security issues.

Records from the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces indicated that Maluso, one of the six pioneer towns in Basilan, was the main transshipment point for methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) in the island province before Bud was elected to office in 2016.

Basilan now has 11 towns and its capital, Lamitan City, had also received three SGLG awards since 2016.

Basilan’s Sumisip municipality, hometown of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, also got from DILG’s central office SGLG awards for 2017 and 2018.

“Maluso was the shabu capital of Basilan for many years until about early 2017,” Ustadz Amarul, a cleric who studied Islamic theology in Saudi Arabia, said on Saturday.

Maluso is being rebuilt from devastation caused by armed conflicts and underdevelopment due to mismanagement by past municipal leaders through socio-economic and infrastructure interventions by the executive department of ARMM.

Local officials said among the many tangible high-ticket projects implemented by the ARMM administration were water supply facilities for Maluso residents.

The ARMM government’s infrastructure thrusts in Maluso and in all other towns in Basilan are jointly managed by Hataman, his public works secretary, Don Loong, and engineer Soler Undug of the Basilan District Engineering Office.

“The 2017 and 2018 SGLG awards we’ve got are motivating us to look beyond and achieve more in making Maluso become a viably progressive municipality, free from lawless elements and saboteurs,” Bud said.