Road project to connect peasant communities to Cotabato trading centers

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Officials on Wednesday launched a multi-million highway rehabilitation project in Datu Odin Sinsuat town to hasten the connectivity of ethnic Teduray and Moro peasant communities to trading centers in Cotabato City.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman, Maguindanao Vice Gov. Lester Sinsuat, and Datu Odin Sinsuat Mayor Ombra Sinsuat jointly led the launching of the project in Tenorio District near the Philippine Army’s Camp Siongco in the same municipality.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division was represented in the event by its commander, Brig. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan.

Vice Gov. Sinsuat told reporters he is thankful to the ARMM government for allocating funds for the repair of the damaged portions of the highway, which connects Tenorio area to North Upi town, also in Maguindanao.

The ARMM’s public works department will bankroll the project with a grant from the region’s 2014 infrastructure budget, according to Regional Public Works Secretary Emil Sadain.

Vice Gov. Sinsuat said the project will complement the efforts of the local government of Datu Odin Sinsuat to harness the eco-tourism potentials of the municipality.

He also expressed gratitude to the ARMM leadership for having convinced recently Singaporean investors to put up palm oil plantations in the south of Datu Odin Sinsuat.

The Singaporean investors have also signified their intention of putting up a modern oil palm processing plant in Barangay Sifaran in Datu Odin Sinsuat, the vice governor said.

Hataman, Sadain and Sinsuat also distributed a thousand schoolbags, in form of "Ramadhan gift," as a sidelight of the project launching,  to children in Tenorio Elementary School, located along a stretch of the highway the ARMM government will rehabilitate.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and focus on good deeds and reparation for wrongdoings during the Ramadhan atonement season, which began June 29 and is expected to end next week depending on the sighting of the new moon to mark the start of the month of Shawwal in the Islamic Hijrah calendar.