'Sea turtle sanctuary' now has first ever town hall

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A municipal hall is rising in a town so near Malaysia where residents use Malaysian money for commerce and trade and can speak Bahasa Melayu better than the Philippine Tagalog language.

Mayor Hadji Faisal Jamalul of Turtle Islands in Tawi-Tawi province said Saturday he and his constituents are grateful to the Bangsamoro government’s Ministry of the Interior and Local Government for providing their municipality with a P25 million worth municipal hall building project.

“It is something we have long wished for,” he said.

Turtle Islands, also known as Taganak, is so close to Sabah, Malaysia that local traders import from there and the nearby Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur the merchandise, fruits and vegetables that they sell in seaside markets in the municipality.

Jamalul said Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo and the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Ahod Ebrahim, have fulfilled their promise to build a municipal government operations building in Turtle Islands.

“The building, if fully constructed, shall rise as a strong icon of governance in this part of the Philippines,” Jamalul said.

The construction of the Turtle Islands town hall started last month.

The MILG-BARMM had, in the past 24 months, constructed dozens of municipal buildings, each costing P25 million, and barangay halls and police stations in different towns in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The Turtle Islands town hall is being built on a hill overlooking the sea separating the municipality from Malaysia and other island towns in Tawi-Tawi.

The Turtle Islands is a known sea turtle sanctuary, where hundreds of sea turtles from across the globe lay eggs yearly and return to the sea.

Besides their native Tausug and Samah vernaculars, residents of Turtle Islands can speak the Malaysian language Bahasa Malayu better than Tagalog.