Flash flood trapped Maguindanao villagers

Thousands of residents evacuate and commuters stranded from their flooded villages in the town of Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao province in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner Photo – Mark Navales).

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 1, 2010) – Flash floods have trapped villagers in many areas in Maguindanao province and nearby areas after heavy rains flooded rivers the past days.

Hundreds of families, mostly farmers, were trapped in the province and so were villagers in nearby Cotabato City. Many roads in Cotabato City were underwater.

There were no reports of injuries or deaths, but the floods damaged crop lands in the province.

Last week, thousands of people were also trapped in Sultan Kudarat town after flood waters submerged many villages. Rivers also overflowed and submerged low-lying areas in the town.

There was no immediate statement from the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Muslim autonomous region to where the province belongs.

It was also unknown whether the regional governor Ansaruddin Adiong ordered food packs and social workers to look into the plight of those affected by the rampaging flood water in Maguindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)

Abolition of ARMM sought

SULU, Philippines - Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan on Sunday renewed calls for the total abolition of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, saying its creation 20 years ago merely resulted in systematic failure and an additional layer in the bureaucracy and corruption in the country today.

Tan accused ARMM officials of allegedly making civil servants’ – the policemen, teachers, health and residents - life difficult. “The results speak for themselves,” Tan said, citing the inability of the ARMM to introduce program of development, health services and jobs creation in the region, even with the assumption of ARMM acting Governor Ansaruddin Adiong as the new leader of the region.

Tan said Adiong have showed system duplication in running affairs of ARMM and failed to address basic social and economic issues, widespread corruption among the local bureaucracy.

He said: “Most of our programs and projects have to pass through the ARMM for implementation even if the funds came from the national government and is intended for our province.”

Worse, he said, the amount intended for Sulu province is being levied by some ARMM officials who are in-charge of the funds before releasing it to us.

Tan, however, admitted that abolishing the ARMM has to be done through a legal, constitutional process and in consultations with all the provinces and cities under the autonomous region.

“If it is a constitutional mandate and all the needed requirements will be met, I would gladly support the abolition of ARMM, as it has only become an added layer of bureaucracy which makes the life of our people difficult,” the Sulu chief executive said.

ARMM is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan. Created in the 1990s, the ARMM brought self-rule to the Muslim minority instead of secession but allegedly failed dismally to uplift lives in the country’s most depressed region. (Nonoy Lacson)

Release of Sulu rehab fund sought from ARMM

SULU, Philippines - Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan on Sunday expressed dismay over the alleged delay in the release of the P10-million fund for the rehabilitation of an ice and cold storage facility in the capital town of Jolo which will benefit marginal fishermen.

Tan said the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao allegedly failed to release to the provincial government the fund for the immediate repair and rehabilitation of the ice and cold storage facility here despite being released already by the national government to the ARMM.

According to Tan, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Department of Agriculture released the funding to the ARMM during the time of former Governor Zaldy Ampatuan.

As this developed, Tan urged ARMM acting Governor Ansaruddin Adiong to direct the BFAR to release the funds for the project and not to show his alleged “fear” on the former administrator of ARMM.

“Governor Adiong should exercise his power and prerogative as ARMM governor this time and not to show fear on the official who is keeping custody of funds for the fishery projects in the provinces under the ARMM,” Tan said.

Tan said Adiong is allegedly hesitant to address some failures of a BFAR official in the implementation of some fisheries projects in the region.

Tan had earlier accused Adiong of duplicating the system of Ampatuan in running the government affairs of the ARMM, an accusation Adiong has already vehemently denied. (Nonoy Lacson)

ARMM fails anew to help develop poor provinces

SULU, Philippines – Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan expressed alarm Friday after sensing that new leaders running the affairs of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao allegedly resembles the shadow of management of the past administration led by detained ARMM Governo Zaldy Ampatuan.

Tan lamented that ARMM acting Governor Ansaruddin Adiong is seemingly just “duplicating the management system and attitude” of detained Ampatuan in the distribution of infrastructure projects and funds for the delivery of basic services to the people of the region.

He said Adiong allegedly failed to assist Sulu and bring development and progress and alleviate poverty in the impoverished province.

“I am sad to inform you that Sulu failed to receive the needed assistance from ARMM led by Governor Adiong since he sat as acting governor of the ARMM,” Tan lamented.

Adding that “the way he (Adiong) handles things and manage the affairs of the region, is more of a duplication on how detained Governor Ampatuan takes care of it when he was still the governor of ARMM.”

He said his government had continued to beg the ARMM government for infrastructure projects and funds to finance the livelihood assistance program of Sulu aimed to uplift the living condition of the people in the province.

Tan accused Adiong of playing favoritism by pouring more funds to provinces in the region were his relatives are the top officials.

“How can our people in Sulu have a better living when the ARMM officials led by Adiong do not help us,” he asked.

He said funds for infrastructure development and livelihood programs coming from the national government coursed through the ARMM, aids from the international communities for development and livelihood including funds for development coming from the ARMM do not reach them.

President Arroyo has directed last year all her Cabinet secretaries to give special attention to the Sulu government in its program for development, peace and progress.

Aside from Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi also did not get any development projects from the new administration. Adiong also failed to visit the provinces since he assumed as acting governor and is always on travel. (Nonoy Lacson)

ARMM bids to replicate Subic Free Port’s feat

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is bidding to replicate in its infant free port facility the success and progress of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority following the recent visit of regional officials to the former American military naval base in Olongapo City in Luzon Island.

Acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong, leading a 20-man ARMM team, visited the SBMA last week to learn about its successful transformation into a special economic zone.

The ARMM delegation sought the assistance of the SBMA to provide insights on the premier free port’s operations as the Adiong administration set launched massive efforts to establish a replica in the village of Polloc in Maguindanao's Parang town.

“We are overwhelmed in terms of the organization and the development of the SBMA - from a former military base to what it is now,” said David Ali, executive director of the ARMM Official Development Assistance Office.

Ali added: “Before we came to SBMA, we had zero knowledge on how to establish our own free port. We made the visit to gather information on how to start the process, and yet we now have some knowledge on long-term operations.”

He said ARMM officials have agreed to make Subic the model for the Polloc port in terms of management and structure.

It may be recalled that Adiong declared on March 15 the development of the port of Polloc as a free port, and of the host village of Polloc as a special economic zone.

SBMA officials led by Chairman Feliciano Salonga and Administrator Armand Arreza welcomed and briefed the ARMM delegation on the administrative and technical requirements in the operation and management of a free port, and the establishment of a one-stop shop center, as well as marketing strategies.

“Of course, we’ve had our ups and downs in running the Subic Bay free port, but then again, we managed to bounce back each time and regain our momentum,” Arreza told the ARMM officials.

“And I’m glad that people continue to look up to Subic whenever they need to hear some success story,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ali expressed reservations on whether the ARMM team could adopt all that it learned in Subic where ”enormous development” has taken place since 1992.

“But we always keep in mind what Governor Adiong tells us — if we don’t start to move, we will not accomplish anything,” Ali said. “Fortunately for us, we don’t have to fumble in the dark, because we have Subic as our template.”

Ali said the ARMM free port project would basically focus on starting up economic activities in Polloc, and then marketing the area in both the national and the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asian Growth Area) levels.

The Adiong-led team was joined by Ali, ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo; Polloc Port Administrator Moharrim Mohammad; among others.

Mohammad said that after their visit, the members of the ARMM management and technical group will meet to plot activities for the project launch set tentatively on April 19.

Polloc is one of the 24 villages in Parang, a first-class municipality.

The area’s main access to trade is the Port of Polloc, which was built by the Korean firm Nam Kwang Construction, Ltd. in the 1970’s through a P150-million funding from the Asian Development Bank.

The port of Polloc was then described by the Philippine Ports Authority as the “most modern facility outside Metro Manila” because it was equipped with a main wharf, lighter docks, transit sheds, and wide back-up areas fit for medium industries and processing plants.

ARMM is among the country's top producers of fish and marine resources, particularly seaweed, which is used in manufacturing toothpaste, cosmetics and paints. It also has large mineral deposits, including copper and gold.

Before the ARMM delegation, several foreign groups have visited Subic to learn about its conversion process. These included groups from Panama, South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and just recently, Brunei. (Ali G. Macabalang)

DSWD, ARMM intensify anti-poverty program

In this photo released by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Governor Ansaruddin Adiong and Social Welfare Secretary Celia Yangco shake hands after signing their memorandum of agreement enhancing the implementation of the anti-poverty Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in the autonomous region in sidelights of Monday’s first meeting among foreign donor-institutions and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao executives in Manila, as witnessing local officials look on enthusiastically.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao signed a memorandum of agreement to ensure the intensified implementation of the government's anti-proverty measure called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

DSWD Secretary Celia Yangco and acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Adiong signed the accord Monday in Manila and witnessed by officials and representatives of foreign donor-organizations and institutions and executives of the regional autonomous government.

In her brief speech, Yangco said the signing of the MOA was meant to replicate if not enhance the 4Ps implementation and ensure effective poverty-alleviation efforts especially in the conflict areas of ARMM.

The 4Ps, one of major anti-poverty government interventions, is a five-year program launched in 2008 through the DSWD. It is funded by international donors including American Development Fund, World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, The United Nations Children Fund and United Nations Population Fund.

It provides small cash grants to identified extremely poor families with the condition that the money will be spent for health and education of their children particularly from zero-to-fourteen years of age.

In ARMM where the country’s highest rate of malnutrition and school dropouts has been recorded, the program has gained momentum with the recent creation of the advisory committee to intensify efforts against poverty and improve the health, nutrition, education and economic condition of the local populace.

The DSWD leads the RAC with the Department of Health), Department of Education, Department of Interior and Local Government, the Regional Development Planning Office and the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information as members.

The RAC aims to effectively implement the 4Ps and translate national policies into region-specific operational guidelines, according to DSWD-ARMM acting Secretary Pombae Kader, who witnessed the signing rites alongside other regional cabinet members.

In his response speech, Adiong said the forging of the MOA would further boost the operations of the RAC in carrying out efforts prescribed under the 4Ps.

“With everything in place, we can no reason for gray areas in ARMM areas as far as the 4Ps implementation is concerned," Adiong stressed.

In an interview, Kader said the 4Ps targeted 92,000 families in the region, each earmarked with P1,400 monthly subsidy for five years for health services and education of three children. Each child will have P300 education or a total of P900 for the three children while the P500 will be used for the family’s basic health service.

As of August 2009 nation-wide, the program increased its target beneficiaries from 700,000 to one million households in 2008, entailing the government to increase its budget from P5-billion to P10 billion, a DSWD report said.

In the ARMM, as of August 2009, the program then covered 15 towns, serving some 30,000 households that received roughly P58 million, the report said, adding that 57 more towns and approximately 70,000 households are targeted in the region in five years. (Ali Macabalang)

Maguindanao wharf declared ARMM’s free port

Acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Adiong (seated second from right) signs the proclamation declaring Polloc Port in Parang town in Maguindanao province a Free Port and Special Economic Zone at a convergence among officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and foreign donor-institutions in Manila on Monday, March 15, 2010 as Japan Embassy second Secretary Hirochika Namekawa (right), Counsellor Hussain Ibrahim Al-Badr of Qatar Embassy (middle), ARMM Speaker Reggie Sahali-Generale, Regional Cabinet Secretary Ila Manalocon (extreme left) and other regional executives shown standing look on enthusiastically. (Ali Macabalang)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Bouncing back from what technocrats lamented as operational deprivation in power devolution, the Polloc Port here finally sees a ray of light in its two-decade quest to open investments and stimulate growth in the impoverished Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The prospects brightened after acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Adiong declared Monday the facility as a Free Port and the host village Polloc as a Special Economic Zone in the autonomous region.

Adiong signed the proclamation in formal ceremonies highlighting the equally unprecedented convergence of top ARMM officials and heads of over a dozen of foreign donor-institutions at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Madaluyong City Monday morning.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the ARMM Board of Investment, extolled the proclamation, saying: “We’ve waited long for this proclamation and we are grateful to Acting Regional Governor Adiong for doing it in pursuit of his vision to spur accelerated growth in the region.”

Mastura, then Trade and Industry regional secretary, conceived and pushed for the declaration of the regional economic zone and the free port during the first ARMM business congress in 2003.

Polloc Port Manager Harry Mohammad said the declaration marked a “historic beginning for the facility, not anymore as a ‘vision of the future’ after years of operation weathering political upheavals, natural and man-made calamities that characterized the Mindanao conflict.”

Mohammad said the Port was dubbed as “vision of the future” when it was constructed in the late 70s by the Korean Nam Kwang Construction, Ltd. with P150-million fund from the Asian Development Bank under the Marcos era.

The Polloc Port was classified then by the Philippine Ports Authority as the country’s “most modern facility outside Metro Manila equipped with main wharf, lighter docks, transit sheds and wide back-up areas fit for medium industries and processing plants, he said.

The ARMM government under the Aquino administration named the Polloc Port an international facility, pursuing an uphill campaign to make it a stimulus of regional economic growth.

The momentum, however, nose dived when the national government through the PPA devolved the operations of wharves in ARMM including Port of Polloc to the regional autonomous governance sans the manpower item-positions and the corresponding funds in 2002.

In recent problem-solving meetings, regional officials led by ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo had crafted measures to push for the immediate declaration of the facility as free port and enhance its operations from the grim effects of the lamentable devolution process, setting up Monday’s occasion.

According to Sinarimbo and Mohammad, Monday’s declaration posed a “hard work” for the new ARMM leadership to “buck down to work and realize a giant mission of achieving a vibrant maritime hub” in mainland Mindanao.

The ARMM officials appealed to maritime industry players and foreign donor-institutions to “help us attain this goal and push the ARMM towards a greater height.”

In response, officials of the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Asian Development Bank, Canadian International Dev’t Agency, Asia Foundation, International Labor Organization, USAID, UNFPA, UNIDO, ILO, UNDP and other foreign institutions assured continued assistance to ARMM.

ARMM is composed of the cities of Marawi and Lamitan and the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, which all have been lagging behind in various development dimensions.

National authorities have blamed the ARMM’s slow growth to peace and order problems, but regional economists argued that the region’s dismal share from the central government funding supports coupled with stringent national laws and policies is the “main impeding factor.”

In his campaign salvo, manager Mohammad said the free port would attract potential partners and investors for industrial estates, export processing, free trade, commercial centers, enterprises and tourism ventures, among others.

He said the port, being the major trading backdoor in the south, would initially operate actively in the commercial ventures of the Brunei , Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines’ East Asean Growth Area.

Tax holidays, capital equipment incentives, exemptions from real property and local taxes, and attractive build-operate and transfer scheme await investors in the village of Polloc, the just-declared special economic zone, which lies in the southern coast of the harbour 14-kilometer north of Cotabato City, he said. (Ali Macabalang)

Victims of Basilan rebel attack, Maguindanao bombing get aid

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 5, 2010) – Acting Governor Ansaruddin Adiong of the Muslim autonomous region released some P260,000 in aid for the victims of rebel attacks in Basilan province and a recent bombing in Maguindanao, his spokesman said Friday.

Ali Macabalang said Adiong also condemned the atrocities against civilians in the two provinces which are part of the autonomous region.

“Upon learning about what he has lamented as barbaric attacks on civilians, acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong ordered the prompt release of P200,000 for the victims in Maluso, Basilan massacre and P60,000 for the casualties in the bombing apart from medical assistance provided by his subordinate officials,” Macabalang said.

Police and military said a dozen people were killed by rebels in an attack February 27 on a small village in Basilan’s Maluso town. Ten others were wounded in the raid that left several houses burned.

Macabalang said Health Secretary Kadil Sinolinding, who was in Maluso during the attack, took the cudgel to bring some of the survivors to hospital in Zamboanga City. He said Sinolinding witnessed the gruesome state of victims burned inside the houses.

Two people were also killed and four other wounded in a bombing in Maguindanao’s Parang town last week.

“For the victims in the Parang bombing that killed two people and injured four others, Governor Adiong dispatched Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo to hand the cash assistance to the victims’ families and bring the survivors to the regional hospital in Cotabato City,” Macabalang said.

He said Adiong also ordered Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, the regional police cghief, to investigate the massacre and bombing incidents and “see to it that the culprits are brought to the bars of justice.”

“We cannot let the barbaric attacks pass unpunished,” Adiong said. (Becky de Asis and Mark Navales contributed to this report.)

ARMM to exert rights over natural resources

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 3, 2010) – Breaking silence for years about deprivations within the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the ARMM’s Regional Legislative Assembly is now pushing for amendment of existing edicts it berated as ‘castrating’ its constituents’ rights over the use of local strategic minerals.

The 24-member RLA presided over by Speaker Reggie Generale tasked its committee on amendments and revisions of laws to look into the protest of Lanao del Sur Assemblyman Ziaur-Rahman Adiong against stringent laws governing the exploitation of natural resources in ARMM.

In his privilege speech here Monday, Assemblyman Adiong asked the RLA to initiate an amendment to existing laws including R.A. 9054 (ARMM Organic Act of 2002), which he said bereft the regional governance of its rights to and shares from the exploitation by “outsiders” of ‘strategic minerals” in the region.

Adiong cited as example the helpless state of the regional governance in the decades-old exploitation of Lake Lanao for hydroelectricity production and the ongoing exploration of oil deposits in an 8,200-kilometer area off the shore of Mapun Island town in Tawi-Tawi.

The exploration is done by the ExxonMobil Exploration and Production B.V. through its service contract 56 permitted by the national government while ARMM authorities could just watch helplessly, Adiong said.

“The SC 56 consortium began drilling activities in the area in October last year at a cost of about $1-million per day and $100-million for its first exploration well. This well, called Dabakan-1, is located about 65 kilometers from Mapun Island in Tawi-Tawi,” he pointed out.

He said the “Department of Energy claims that the SC 56 may hold up to 750 million barrels of oil, which is equivalent to seven years’ worth of local crude supply for the Philippines.”

“We, the people of ARMM, stand to lose everything and gain nothing out of the exploration," Adiong said, due to the stringent provision of R.A. 9054 that retains to the national government the sole authority to govern the exploitation of “strategic minerals” in the region.

R.A. 9054 devolves to the ARMM government the “control and supervision over the exploration, utilization, development and protection of the mines and minerals and other natural resources within the autonomous region…except for the strategic such as uranium, petroleum, and other fossil fuels, mineral oils, all sources of potential energy, as well as national reservations already delimited by authority of the central government or national government and those that may be defined by an Act of Congress.”

Adiong clarified that the “castrating provision” of R.A. 9054 could still be remedied by way of amendment to be initiated by the RLA and sustained by Congress as provided for in the same Organic Act.

He asked the RLA to propose the amendment that would endow the regional government “a measure of control and supervision over strategic minerals like uranium, petroleum, and other natural reserves and aquatic parks, forest and watershed reservations already delimited by the central government.”

In his privilege speech, Adiong said that such amendment could also address similar helplessness that ARMM faces in the central government-controlled exploitation of Lake Lanao by the National Power Corporation as a supplier of the 85 percent or so of Mindanao’s hydroelectricity demand.

Adiong lamented that since time immemorial, the NPC and the Department of Energy “have not disclosed where really goes the electrification fund of one (1) cent per kilowatt hour of electricity sales of NPC, as mandated by virtue of Energy Resolution 1-94.”

Earlier, Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Alonto-Adiong Jr., elder brother of the assemblyman, lamented that because of the central government controls the management of Lake Lanao and its watersheds, his administration and the ARMM government could not tinker with the sad state of the lake.

Adiong said the four major river tributaries of Lake Lanao have been heavily silted for years, impeding the inflow of water down to the lake. The provincial government has long proposed the dredging of the rivers but the central government failed to act on it.

“We are hoping the national government will finally listen to our pleas this time as Mindanao is in engulfed by rampant power outages due to the dwindling water level in Lake Lanao,” he told journalists. (Ali G. Macabalang)

Acting Maguindanao governor replaced, reforms continue in ARMM

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 26, 2010) – Muslim autonomous region Governor Ansaruddin Adiong has named a new acting provincial governor of Maguindanao and vowed to continue reforms in the troubled region, officials told the Mindanao Examiner on Friday.

Ali Macabalang, the regional government spokesman, said Gani Biruar, whose wife is the current Social Welfare Secretary in the autonomous region, was appointed this week and he replaced Nariman Ambolodto.

Ambolodto served as acting governor of Maguindanao in December last year after the brutal murders of 57 people, including at least 31 journalists, in the province blamed to the powerful Ampatuan clan. Among those killed was the wife of Buluan town Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu and his relatives.

Ambolodto was appointed acting provincial governor after the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan and his sons were implicated in the killings. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the governor of Maguindanao; and his son Zaldy Ampatuan, the regional governor; and his brother Andal Ampatuan Jr. who is the mayor of Datu Unsay town and other clan members were implicated in the killings, which authorities said was politically motivated.

“Governor Adiong has appointed Gani Biruar as the new acting Maguindanao governor after a careful selection among those nominated for the post. This is part of the continuing reforms in the Muslim autonomous region to better serve our people,” Macabalang said.

He said Ambolodto is appointed acting vice governor of Maguindanao, a position also held by Tato Ampatuan, who was also linked to the November 23 massacres. The Ampatuan clan denied any involvement in the murders.

Ambolodto, a member of President Gloria Arroyo’s political coalition, Lakas-Kampi-CMD, was replaced days after she was accused of supporting opposition senator Benigno Aquino III who is running for the presidency, instead of former Defense chief Gilberto Teodoro.

Her loyalty to Adiong was also doubted by senior regional officials, but she denied all the allegations and said she is not seeking any elective posts and only wanted to serve her people well. (Mindanao Examiner)

ARMM opens 1st regional solidarity games

The acting governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Ansaruddin Adiong, hands over to a student a certificate of scholarship grant as Secretary Norma Sharief, of the ARMM Commission on Higher Education looks and two other officials look during the opening of the 1st Regional Solidarity Games, Academic and Cultural Events Competitions in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur province on Wednesday, February 3, 2010. (Photo by Ali Macabalang)

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / February 4, 2010) – The Commission on Higher Education in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao opened its first regional solidarity games, academic and cultural events competitions in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur province, officials said Thursday.

More than a dozen of the region’s higher educational institutions participated in the four-day events which began on Wednesday, said Ali Macabalang, the ARMM’s public information chief.

He said acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Adiong led the opening of the competitions which also coincided with the awarding of scholarship grants to each of the 117 towns in the five-province Muslim autonomous region.

The grant is part of the so-called “One Scholar, One Town” program of the CHED-ARMM.

“Governor Adiong has urged participating students to harness their sports and academic prowess to be able to achieve brighter prospects. He cited the current emergence of Filipino sportsmen like Manny Pacquiao in the global scene and that this should stimulate the students to strive hard. Your successes in sports and academic endeavors would mean the success of our region at least,” Macabalang quoted the ARMM chief executive as saying.

Macabalang said the categories of the games cover badminton, chess, table tennis, karate, lawn tennis, swimming, tae kwon do for individual player; and basketball, baseball, football, softball, sepak tekraw and volleyball for team players.

While the cultural category includes awit-saya, tipa at tugtugan (solo instrument), likh-awit (song-writing), ginoo at binibining pamantasan (school pageant) for individual player; awit-saya for duet, sayawitan (sing and dance choir) sayaw-Pinoy (Filipino creative folk-ethnic dance) for group players.

He said the winners in the competitions will represent the ARMM to the national competition which will be held in Manila from February 23-29. The academic category covers impromptu speech, oration, poetry interpretation, story-telling, science quiz, math quiz and computer quiz for individuals, and public debate for groups. (Merlyn Manos, Mark Navales and Becky de Asis contributed to this report)

Australia to extend education program in ARMM

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo (left) swears into office lawyer Dr Hamid Barra as new secretary of the Department of Education in the autonomous region in simple rites in Cotabato City on Monday, February 1, 2010 as Shariah Judge Aboali Cali, lawyer Engineer Udtog Tago and a ranking official of the DepEd-ARMM look on. ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Adiong appointed Barra last week before the new secretary was elected by the National Ulama Council of the Philippines to steer various vital education programs in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan which form part of the ARMM. (Photo by Ali Macabalang)

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 2, 2010) – Australia is likely to extend its support and finance a critical education program in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Filipino officials said on Tuesday.

Officials said the Australian Agency for International Development pledged to extend up to ten years its Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao which would focus only to the depressed communities in the impoverished region which comprises the province of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

The Australian project is expected to reach some US$33-million, according to ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo, who said that lawyer Hamid Barra, who was earlier appointed by acting ARMM Governor Ansaruddin Adiong as regional secretary of the Department of Education, will be playing a main role in the extended BEAM projects.

Sinarimbo said the extended BEAM program seeks to intensify the AusAID intervention in addressing the high dropouts, elementary undergraduates, classrooms shortage, and inappropriate teachers’ instructional skills in the Muslim autonomous region.

He said the proposed education program extension covers only the elementary level. For the high school education which also needs improvements, Sinarimbo said they will have to conduct a study and present proposals to other aid donors.

The BEAM Project ended in Muslim autonomous region ended last year after completing an eight-year mission of helping public schools in reach and maintains higher standards of basic education.

“It is pleasing to note that much have been achieved in the ARMM areas covered by the BEAM project with a 24 percent improvement in elementary education and 15 percent in the secondary level,” said Ian D’Arcy Walsh, BEAM project director, during a farewell dinner in November hosted by the Department of Education in Cotabato City.

The Philippine News Agency said Australia’s basic education program covers 18 provinces in central and southern Philippines and is focused on improving access to quality education, providing better teaching and learning in Mindanao and the Visayas, and supporting national basic education reforms.

It said as a lead grant donor in basic education, Canberra has been assisting the Philippines in meeting a lagging Millennium Development Goal indicator which is to achieve universal primary education by 2015.

BEAM has been instrumental in providing tested innovations to the Department of Education which largely influenced the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda in standards setting, educational planning, learning outcomes management, financial management, educational administration and management, and monitoring and evaluation.

The government media said with BEAM's support, over 5,000 schools are now implementing school-based management, and about 53,000 teachers have received training to strengthen their teaching skills and improve learning outcomes for children.

To improve the quality of Islamic instruction, including mainstream public schools, Australia also helped train about 2,000 Muslim teachers and supported 30 Islamic schools to enable them to become accredited operator of private schools implementing the Standard Madrasah curriculum. (Mark Navales and Ali Macabalang and the Philippine News Agency contributed to this report)

Planning body refreshes ARMM dev’t direction

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Line departments and offices of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao ended Thursday their three-day strategic planning workshop, drafting a two-year development package aimed at bringing the impoverished ARMM communities to greater heights.

Some 70 heads and technical personnel of the ARMM’s agencies and offices threshed out problems besetting the region and proposed the corresponding solutions in three successive days of deliberations attended personally by acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong.

The two-year development plan, which has been collated from the proposals of participating departments and bureaus, will be tackled further for adoption by the Regional Economic and Development Planning Board (REDPB), the ARMM’s highest policy-making body chaired by Adiong.

The REDPB, which opens Friday their two-day meeting at the same venue here, is composed of the governors of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, the mayors of Marawi and Lamitan cities and the tops officials of the ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly.

At the opening of the preceding workshop Tuesday, Adiong addressed the participants, citing among others funding supports from national and foreign sources now in the pipeline that include a $30-million package earmarked by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank.

In his brief speech, Adiong said the national and foreign-funded development projects will be proportionately spread across the ARMM component areas to meet the social, economic, infrastructure and peace and order concerns of the target areas.

“Let us pursue our development thrusts and address squarely the grey areas under the principle of transparent, consultative and moral governance,” Adiong said.

Adiong joined the seminar and exchanged ideas with the participants in their respective tables.

Malacanang through Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno installed to office Adiong last December 14 in lieu of ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, who has been suspended and detained in connection with the Nov. 23 massacre in Maguindanao of 57 people including 31 journalists.

Over the weekend, Sulu Governor Sakur Tan and Tawi-Tawi vice Governor Ruby Sahali-Tan expressed their cooperation with the new ARMM leadership, saying they were optimistic that Adiong would be able to “achieve reforms in the regional bureaucracy and deliver better services to the populace.” (Ali Macabalang)