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COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has turned over an Php18.2-million worth of two-storey building with 10 classrooms to Upi Agricultural School (UAS) in Upi, Maguindanao del Norte, on September 21, 2023.
This event was graced by school officials, local government unit (LGU) officials, and representatives of the BARMM’s Ministry Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) headed by Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal.
One of Iqbal’s education reform agenda in the Bangsamoro region is constructing new school buildings to address the lack of classrooms.
It’s obviously part of the MBHTE’s “No Bangsamoro learner shall be left behind”, particularly on education.
Eng’r. Sukarno B. Datukan, Ph.D., UAS administrator, can’t believe that his school has a new building after over a century of operation.
“I am overwhelmed that for 104 years of Upi Agricultural School’s (UAS) existence, it is only now that it received this kind of huge project,” Dr. Datukan said as he expressed his gratitude to the MBHTE for making the plans for the school a reality.
He did not exactly say it but in the 20-year existence of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), BARMM’s predecessor, it failed to do it.
“Since BARMM Government’s establishment, developmental projects have been poured over the Municipality of Upi that include varieties of infrastructure projects from different Ministries, and now from the MBHTE”, said Mayor Ma. Rona Cristina P. Flores through her representative Municipal Councilor Saidie Lidasan.
Jay Olubalang, chief of staff of the Office of Minister of Parliament (MP) Ramon A. Piang, Sr., emphasized their full support and commitment to ensure unity, peace, and development in the Bangsamoro, which have been the MP’s advocacies when he was still the local chief executive of Upi.
Iqbal through MBHTE Deputy Minister Haron Meling emphasized that the ministry’s success stories for the past years since the establishment of BARMM are through the unending efforts, initiatives, and programs to address all the unique needs of MBHTE’s stakeholders.
Representing the Education Facilities Section of the Ministry, Engr. Zubair A. Guiaman, officer-in-charge (OIC) seection chief, highlighted the need to sustain this kind of developmental project by intensifying the propagation of the real essence of peace.
Furthermore, this building will be succeeded by another project of Php42-million worth of dormitory under General Appropriations Act of the Bangsamoro (GAAB) 2023 that is believed to be another impactful project to this institution.
The MBHTE said this project bears testament to the Ministry’s unwavering dedication to ensuring that “No Bangsamoro learner shall be left behind.”
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided 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. (✓)