Maguindanao seniors, PWDs thankful for social services received in 2015

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The elderly folks and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Maguindanao expressed gratitude for the humanitarian programs of the provincial government in 2015.

“The services extended to us this year were far-reaching, something we will not forget. We are so inspired to continue supporting the humanitarian and peace programs of the provincial government,” Lucia Sinsuat-Cueto, chair of the provincial confederation of senior citizens, said Monday.

Hundreds of senior citizens from Maguindanao’s 36 towns were provided with health and social welfare services during the celebration of the 42nd founding anniversary of the province in November, one of the highlights of the provincial government’s special programs for the sector this year.

Cueto said it was in 2015 when the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu achieved its goal of fully organizing senior citizens in the province into a big group with convenient access to government health and social welfare facets.

The office of Mangudadatu is serving Cueto and thousands more of senior citizens through a highly-mobile  emergency and disaster response team led by Lynette Estandarte, concurrent provincial budget officer.

A 78-year-old widow, Kadiguia Mantato, said even younger members of her family had benefited from a recent medical mission of Estandarte’s group in Datu Piang town supposedly intended only for senior citizens.

“We are thankful to the provincial government for focusing attention on us,” Samsudin Alih, 67, an ethnic Iranon, said.

It was also this year when the provincial government succeeded in organizing into a monolithic bloc the PWDs in all of Maguindanao’s 36 towns.

Officials of Maguindanao’s newly-revitalized PWD organization were sworn to office early this month by Vice-Mayor Jhazzer Mangudadatu of Buluan, the new capital of the province.

The event was capped off with the distribution of wheelchairs and other mobility devices to PWDs by the vice-mayor and provincial officials, among them Board Member Russman Sinsuat Jr., himself a person with disability.

Sinsuat, Jr. lost a leg more than three years ago to a roadside bombing in Tacurong City that killed his father, Russman Sinsuat, Sr., who was an incumbent member of the provincial board then.

He said he is delighted and satisfied with how the Mangudadatu administration has been serving the PWDs in Maguindanao.

The provincial government is serving the PWDs in Maguindanao also through the Estandarte-led provincial emergency response group.