@edd1819 / @bluestar0910 / SDN — Science and Digital News
“Our hope is that these projects would truly respond to the need of our people and, on the parts of the LGUs, improve their service deliver to our people. After all. we are not holders of positions, we are servants of the people.”
— Interior Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo
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(SDN) — Another local government unit (LGU) in the Bangsamoro region will have its Municipal Hall as well as a unit of desalination machine for its residents’ potable water.
The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) headed by Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo will fund the construction of a new Municipal Hall for Lugus in Sulu as well as the provision of the desalination machine that will draw water from the sea and convert the salty water into drinking water.
Sinarimbo’s ministry had already provided two other Sulu towns of their own desalination machines, as he noted that some municipalities of Sulu have no drinking water for ages.
In fact, the MILG has allocated some Php430 million for the the desalination machines as well as the rehabilitation of the Marawi City Water System in Lanao del Sur. Water is a precious commodity, indeed.
Along with Sulu and Lanao del Sur, the others comprising the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are Basilan, Maguindanao, and Tawi-Tawi provinces, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi as well as 63 villages in North Cotabato designated as Special Geographic Area (SGA).
Sinarimbo and Lugus Mayor Hadar Hajiri signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on January 13, 2022, to implement the projects.
“We are providing the island municipality of Lugus, Sulu, a two-storey Municipal Hall building and one unit Desalination Machine which will supply potable water to the constituents of (Lugus),” he announced.
The MILG head and BARMM spokesman recalled that he visited Lugus in 2020 along with two other BARMM ministers “where I saw personally the acute problem of potable water where our people needed to take a boat for several hours to fetch potable water,” said Sinarimbo as he added the sight “truly moved me and gave impetus to the project for Waterless Municipalities/Communities.”
He continued that the MILG submitted a proposal to BARMM Chief Minister Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim which he approved along with the funding.
“Our hope is that these projects would truly respond to the need of our people and, on the parts of the LGUs, improve their service deliver to our people. After all. we are not holders of positions, we are servants of the people,” Sinarimbo emphasized.
Checks for Buluan and Mangudadatu towns
Meanwhile, on January 11, Sinarimbo handed over to Mayor Elizabeth Tayuan of Mangudadatu municipality and Babydats Mangudadatu of Buluan the amounts in checks for the construction of their respective Municipal Hall buildings.
He earlier signed separate MOAs with the two lady LGU chief executives for the construction of the town buildings. Both are in Maguindanao.
“We hope that this will fast-tracked the implementation of these projects so that service delivery in these LGUs will be enhanced further,” said a hopeful Sinarimbo.
Everywhere in the Bangsamoro region, the MILG has been implementing infrastructure projects such as Municipal Halls, Integrated Public Terminals, Philippine National Police (PNP) Stations, Public Markets, Barangay Halls, and others, representing the dividends or gains of peace resulting from the forging of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
The CAB is the final major peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) under Chairman Ebrahim. ()