COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will construct core shelters for 12,000 poor households before it is replaced in 2019 with a Bangsamoro political entity.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front will manage the upcoming Bangsamoro government.
Reports obtained from state auditors Saturday stated that the ARMM-Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment (BRIDGE) program is presently constructing hundreds of houses for poor families in five provinces in the autonomous region.
The autonomous region covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur and the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, provinces that are still reeling from the adverse effects of secessionist conflicts.
The ARMM-BRIDGE is focused on providing poor villagers in the autonomous region with four basic amenities, food, shelter, clean water and electricity, via its “Apat na Dapat” initiative.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman led the separate launching of the core shelter projects this week in the towns of Datu Blah Sinsuat, Buldon, Matanog and Barira, all in the first district of Maguindanao.
Amir Mawallil, executive director of ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information, told The STAR Saturday that BRIDGE program personnel have rationed food and extended other humanitarian interventions to 5,000 families in 2017 and, subsequently, to 7,000 more from January to July this year.
The ARMM-BRIDGE is operating under the supervision of Hataman, now in his second term as regional governor.
The Bangsamoro entity shall be led by a chief minister, someone from the MILF, supported by an 80-member regional parliament.
In his messages during the symbolic housing project groundbreaking rites this week, Hataman assured that all 12,000 households the ARMM-BRIDGE targeted to provide with core shelters shall have them by 2019.
“I am praying that the construction works will proceed without getting slowed by security problems or calamities,” he told reporters while in the seaside Datu Blah Sinsuat town last August 22.
The ARMM-BRIDGE will construct 100 houses for impoverished residents of Barangays Pura and Matuber in Datu Blah Sinsuat.
The public works secretary of ARMM, engineer Don Loong, and the eight District Engineering Offices in the autonomous region are helping implement the housing projects.
The charter of ARMM, the Republic Act 9054, shall be superseded by the Bangsamoro Organic Law, or BOL.
Crafted jointly by representatives from the government and the MILF, the BOL, approved last July by the bicameral committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate, is the enabling measure for the ARMM’s replacement with a Bangsamoro government.
The BOL was premised on two compacts between the government and the MILF --- the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro, and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
The two documents are products of 19 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF.
Hataman said he and members of his regional cabinet are now preparing for the possible transition next year from ARMM to the new Bangsamoro entity.
“While preparing for that we will see to it that all of the activities of ARMM-BRIDGE shall be carried before we leave,” Hataman said.
Hataman is a staunch supporter of the peace process between the government and the MILF.
He had repeatedly said he will not feel bad if the BOL will curtail his term, supposedly covering June 30, 2016 to June 30, 2019, just for peace to reign in southern provinces hounded by the Moro issue since the 1970s.