Basilan gov't service center opens to public

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Officials launched on Tuesday, April 21, the newly-constructed multi-million public service center of the Bangsamoro regional government in Basilan, built with the help of foreign benefactors.

The inauguration of the two-storey building inside Basilan’s provincial capitol compound in Lamitan City was jointly led by Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua and Gov. Mujiv Hataman, done in the presence of European Union Ambassador to the Philippines Massimo Santoro and other officials from different agencies of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Local executives from Basilan's 11 towns and two cities, Lamitan and Isabela, also attended the event.

Regional officials told reporters on Wednesday that the BARMM government and the United Nations Office on Procurement Services cooperated in constructing the Bangsamoro Chief Minister’s Office in Lamitan City.

Hataman said they are glad that from among BARMM’s five provinces, Basilan is the first to have such a public service facility of the BARMM government.

Hataman described as a “vote of confidence” for the peace and calm now spreading around the island province of Basilan the involvement of foreign donors in the establishment of the facility, to function as a conduit of the local communities to BARMM’s regional operations center in Cotabato City in Central Mindanao.

Basilan is one of the five provinces in BARMM, which also covers Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where its regional capitol is located.

“When partnerships related to governance are strong, progress becomes visible,” Hataman said in a message during the event.

Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay said they will support extensively the operation of the Bangsamoro Chief Minister's Office in Barangay Santa Clara, which is under their local government’s jurisdiction.

“This facility can surely complement our community service thrusts benefiting our constituents in all of the barangays in Lamitan City,” Furigay said.

Macacua, while at the Basilan provincial government center, assured Mr. Hataman and all of the mayors in Basilan and their constituent-community leaders of the BARMM government’s focus on activities that can foster peace and development in the province.

Macacua is figurehead of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, based in Cotabato City, and is also overseeing all agencies of the Bangsamoro government.

Basilan is now touted as one of BARMM's new investment hubs, declared totally free from the presence of the Abu Sayyaf terror group last year by local executives and senior police and military officials in the province.