FLOATING MARKET | Soon, vendors in this floating market in Sitangkai town of Tawi-Tawi province, in this photo taken on July 15, will have the option to sell their goods on dry land once the construction of the town’s public market building, a project of the Bangsamoro government, is finished. (Photo by BONG SARMIENTO / Inquirer Mindanao)
SIBUTU, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines — The Bangsamoro regional government has turned over multimillion peso worth of projects in remote island towns of Tawi-Tawi province in a bid to improve government services and spur economic activities in the region.
Interior and Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo on Saturday led the groundbreaking for the P24.25-million new two-story townhall in Barangay Taungoh here, a day after the town of Sitangkai, where Sibutu was carved out, received the check for its own P15.5-million public market building.
Sinarimbo said the Bangsamoro government wanted to bring the government closer to its constituents, especially in remote communities.
“We are giving you better facilities so that you can also render better services to our people,” Sinarimbo said after the groundbreaking.
First time
Sibutu officials led by Mayor Nur-Fitra Ahaja came in full force to thank the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) officials.
“This groundbreaking event signifies a pathway of development that will open more road of opportunities for our municipality,” Ahaja said.
In Sitangkai, Mayor Tiblan Ahaja on Friday thanked the Bangsamoro government for choosing his town as a beneficiary under its infrastructure development program.
“This is historic because this is the first time that our municipality receives such project from the Bangsamoro government,” the mayor said.
This was the second time that the Ministry of Local Government of the BARMM held groundbreaking activities in Tawi-Tawi, following the maiden flight of flag carrier Philippine Airlines, which opened its Cotabato-Tawi-Tawi flights on June 9. Back then, the agency proceeded to Sulu to also break ground and inspect some of the BARMM projects there.
Sinarimbo said the establishment of infrastructure facilities in remote or border areas of the Bangsamoro with the neighboring countries in the Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East Asean Growth Area would finally drive home the point to people of these towns that they were part of the Philippine territory.
Peace deal component
The creation of the Bangsamoro region has been a key component of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, a peace deal signed between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2014 during the Aquino administration after 17 years of negotiations.
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