Basilan, Sulu Have 5 New Towns

NEW TOWNS. ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) Speaker Hatimil Hassan signs five bills creating four new towns in Basilan and one in Sulu provinces. The signing is witnessed by RLA members Rajam Akbar, left, and Bonnie Abdulaziz Balamo and an unidentified staff.


ZAMBOANGA CITY (Hader Glang / 08 Jan) The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) has passed and approved into law five legislations creating four new municipalities in Basilan and one in Sulu provinces.

ARMM Speaker Hatimil Hassan signed RLA Bills Nos. 9, 11, 13, 14 and 16 in Cotabato City just last week, he said.

He said the new municipalities are Hadji Mohammad Ajul and Akbar (carved out from Tuburan); Ungkaya Pukan and Al-Barka (from Tipo-Tipo), all in Basilan; and Omar (from the municipality of Luuk) in Sulu.

Hassan said the municipality of Hadji Mohammad Ajul is composed of Barangays Basakan, Buton, Candiis, Langgung, Langil, Languyan, Pintasan, Seronggon, Sibago Island, Sulutan Matangal, and Tuburan Proper.

While the municipality of Akbar is comprised of Barangays Caddayan, Linongan Island, Lower Bato-Bato, Mangalut, Manggusu, Paguengan, Semut, Sinangkapan and Upper Bato-Bato.

And in Sulu, the municipality of Omar is made up of Barangays Andalan, Angilan, Howit-Howit, Lahing-Lahing, Niangkaan, Tangkuan, and Sucuban.

"These five newly created municipalities will be added to more than 70 towns in the Muslim autonomous region," said Hassan, the chairman of the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which signed a peace agreement with Manila in September 1996.

Hassan said a plebiscite will be held after 120 days from the approval of the Act and that new municipal officials will be appointed immediately.

ARMM Assemblywoman Rajam Akbar, the principal author of the creation of the four new municipalities in Basilan, said the move would provide more job opportunities to many people in the areas and hasten government development projects there.

"We hope to generate many jobs in Basilan with the creation of these new municipalities and hasten developments in the province," Akbar, who also heads the RLA Committee on Local Government, told the Zamboanga Journal.

Sulu Assemblyman Maulana Omar, said he would work for the development of the new municipality in the province.

"It will also fast track the development projects in these areas which in the past were neglected and not given attention. This will surely bring rapid development not only in Sulu, but Basilan province as well," Omar, also the author of the creation of the new Sulu municipality, said in a separate interview.