BARMM News
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SITANGKAI, Tawi-Tawi (SDN) — The province of Tawi-Tawi, like other local government units (LGUs) in Muslim Mindanao, has been a recipient of construction projects from the Bangsamoro government.
Obviously, the buildings are physical manifestations of the “dividends of peace” which products of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
BARMM LGUs are having their heyday receiving projects from the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) under the leadership of youthful lawyer Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo; projects construction of Municipal Hall, Philippine National Police (PNP) Stations, Public Market, Public Terminal, Tourism Center, seawater desalination facilities, and improvement of water systems, among others.
Never in the 20 years or so history of the defunct ARMM has this happened, a continuous flow of building projects. And that’s just from the MILG.
Earlier this month, Sinarimbo and his party sailed to what he described as “the famous Venice-like municipality of Sitangkai, one of the municipalities of Tawi-Tawi, for the groundbreaking of a public market building project for the LGU.
“It has been a dream to reach this far away municipality that sits at our boundary with Indonesia and Malaysia. Its famous market along its water canals is very vibrant. I am elated to see that the LGU together with its people is now engaged in its regeneration and beautification,” the MILF head said.
He invited his fellow Bangsamoro people to visit the island town.
“Sitangkai is forever etched in the psyche of our people because of the popular song ‘Baleleng’. But more than this, I feel that we should all make a pilgrimage into this place once in our lifetime if only to see a quaint vestige of our beautiful past that if we are not careful, we will forever loss, just like our neighbors in the north,” Sinarimbo said.
From Wikipedia, here’s an information about the song Baleleng.
“Baleleng is one of the famous Filipino folk song(s) which is Sama Dilaut and/or Tausug in origin that has been passed through generations. The composer or the writer of the song was not credited and was unknown. The tune was passed by mouth from province to province and the original lyrics of the song was altered.” (bold letters by Wikipedia)
Meanwhile, BARMM are the mainland provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao and their cities — Cotabato and Marawi — as well as the Special Geographic Area (SGA) carved out of non-BARMM North Cotabato made up of 63 barangays or villages that voted in the January and February 2019 plebiscites to join the region.
On the other hand, Basilan (and its city, Lamitan), Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi are the Bangsamoro region’s island provinces.
The Bansamoro Organic Law (BOL) established the BARMM toimplement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed after 17 years of protracted peace negotiations. — EKU (/)