BARMM News
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COTABATO CITY — The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) of the Bangsamoro government has responded to flooding Pagalungan Municipality, Maguindanao, with relief assistance.
MILG Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo said parts of the municipality went underwater because of heavy rain.
“We responded yesterday (July 19, 2022) to the flooding in Pagalungan by providing relief assistance to the (flood) victims,,” said Sinarimbo, also the spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
He commended the town’s chief executive, Mayor Salik P. Mamasabulod for assisting his constituents, a duty of all local government units (LGUs) officials.
While in Pagalungan, the MILG official and his team also visited and inspected the ongoing construction of MILG’s Public Market project for the LGU.
“We are happy with the progress of the construction and hope with its opening, it will contribute to the economic recovery of this municipality and provide a platform for our farmers and fisherfolks to sell their produce,” said Sinarimbo.
As this developed, the MILG, with orders from BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim has been implementing various construction projects and installation of facilities in the Bangsamoro region, which covers five provinces, three cities, and a Special Geographic Area (SGA) comprised of 63 barangays or villages in North Cotabato province but under BARMM jurisdiction.
Established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the BARMM territory is made up of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the SGA villages that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in January and February 2019.
The BARMM population per the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur.
Sinarimbo said the construction projects the MILG has been implementing in the different Bangsamoro areas include Municipal Halls, Philippine National Police (PNP) Stations, Public Markets, Public Terminals, Tourism Center, Barangay Halls, and the putting up of Water Desalination Facilities (particularly, so far) in the BARMM in the municipalities of the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which have been since “eons ago” as the MILG head once said have no potable or drinking water, as well as Water Systems so far in Lanao del Sur.
Many of the buildings have been completed and turned over to LGU beneficiaries while others are under construction and still others in the planning stage.
The construction projects are the physical and concrete “dividends of peace” as a result of the CAB the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed with the Philippine Government on March 27, 2014. (/)