PHOTO BY FRANCES MANGOSING
MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao—Residents here will soon no longer use the rickety bridge that gives Tukanalipao village access to the rest of the town.
A groundbreaking ceremony for a concrete steel bridge was held on Tuesday to replace the wooden bridge that has become known as the site of a bloody encounter that killed 44 police commandos on January.
The bridge was where most of the Special Action Force troopers were killed in an attempt to get top terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan.
The ceremony was attended by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang Jr., ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, Moro Islamic Liberation Front spokesperson Von Al Haq and Mamasapano Mayor Benzar Ampatuan.
The project will be completed in about four months and costs about P10 million.
For Zaina Blangalim, who lost her nephew to the Mamasapano incident, the bridge project is a welcome development to their town.
But she also pleaded to a stop to the war. Her nephew was one of the civilian casualties killed supposedly by SAF troops.
“We no longer want war. We don’t want to be evacuated all the time,” she said.
The military ended its all-out offensives in Maguindanao on Monday after a month of operations.
PHOTO BY FRANCES MANGOSING
The government forces are going after the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in the areas in the so-called SPMS box (Salvo, Pagatin, mamasapano and Sharriff Aguak).
“The President wants to turn around the situation to something productive. This is an opportune time to show that there will be peace,” Catapang said.
“Our campaign is we have to win the peace but peace is relative … If we want to maintain peace there should be progress, and if there will be progress there should be prosperity,” he said.
“This is what the President calls inclusive growth.”
The bridge is just one of the many developmental projects in Maguindanao.
“We are more or less on the P100-million mark, combining funds by AFP, ARMM and DBM. Included are the construction of schools in six areas here in Mamasapano and we also have a livelihood program worth P10 million, to be implemented immediately,” Abad told reporters. RC