Remote Turtle Islands gets new town hall

LAST-MILE COMMUNITY PROJECT The municipality of Turtle Islands in Tawi-Tawi is building a P25-million town hall on Taganak Hill. The construction of the town hall, shown in this photo taken in March, is part of the program of the Bangsamoro government to improve facilities in last-mile or remote communities. —PHOTO COURTESY OF NAGUIB SINARIMBO

GENERAL SANTOS CITY— Turtle Islands, the country’s remotest town on its southwestern tip, will soon have a brand-new P25-million town hall.

Bangsamoro Interior and Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo said the town hall, currently being built on Taganak Hill, formed part of the infrastructure development program that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) earmarked for its last-mile communities.

“Despite the distance, [we are building a] municipal hall [in the] remote municipality to ensure that governance will be felt there,” Sinarimbo said.

Turtle Islands, which in 2020 has a population of almost 6,000, is a fifth class municipality of Tawi-Tawi province, located much closer to Sandakan in Sabah, Malaysia, the former capital of British North Borneo, than the provincial capital of Bongao.

The town is only 30 minutes by speed boat to Sandakan but a 12- to 15-hour boat ride from Bongao, Sinarimbo said.

Made up of the islands of Taganak, Baguan, Langaan, Boan, Lihiman and Great Bakkungan, Turtle Islands has been a known breeding ground of green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The whole municipality has been declared a protected area through Presidential Proclamation No. 171 Series of 1999.

Construction of the town hall, which started in July last year, was funded under Local Moral Governance Fund support, part of the Ministry of Interior and Local Government’s program to improve the services of constituent local government units in the BARMM.

One-stop center

Sinarimbo said the new and modern Turtle Islands municipal hall would serve as a “one-stop” center for all transactions of the local government.

“The new town hall will not only serve as a help desk of the government bureaucracy, it will also house in one roof multiple departments, offices and agencies to assist the mayor in implementing projects that will improve the people’s livelihood,” he said.

The current town hall, also located on Taganak Island, only houses the office of the mayor, the municipal council’s session hall and the local tourism office.

Sinarimbo said they expected the project to be completed within the year.

Turtle Islands Mayor Mohammad Faizal Jamalul thanked the Bangsamoro government for funding the construction of the new town hall.

Once completed, the bigger building would boost the various services that the local government is already offering the public, he said. INQ