COTABATO CITY — A lot has changed for the better over the past six years in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a top regional executive said Friday.
“(I think) we have achieved good performance and a functioning regional government through good governance in recent years,” ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman told reporters here when queried about his utmost contribution to ARMM.
“When we started here, we said that the most essential thing we should do is to make the government functional,” the governor said.
Hataman cited, among others, the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) recognition of 22 local government units (LGUs) that received the Seal of Good Local Governance in 2017, the first in the 18-year-old regional autonomous government.
With the feat, Hataman said his office eyes to increase the number of good governance awardees to as many as 50 LGUs out of the 118 towns and cities across ARMM.
To achieve that dream, the governor said he would personally address the issue of absenteeism in some LGUs after he received a memorandum from Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Mindanao martial law administrator, instructing the regional governor and provincial governors to supervise local chief executives.
“Regional and provincial governors were directed to ensure that local chief executives under their general supervision are placed under a clear monitoring system that will guarantee their presence and the delivery of government programs and services to the constituents of the respective LGUs,” Lorenzana said in his memorandum.
Hataman also raised challenges in terms of security, citing the Marawi incident and the steady recruitment of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
However, he said incidents of kidnapping in the region have gone down after personalities involved in abduction cases have been apprehended.
Through the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team, the regional government’s response to crisis has also become more efficient, he said.
Meanwhile, a regional development plan was formulated to sustain the whole region’s development even after his term has ended.
During the final stretch of his administration, the regional government will focus on barangays that urgently need attention from the regional government.
“Since the most basic unit of the government is the barangay, we are focusing on 636 ARMM-HELPS (Health, Education, Livelihood, Peace and Governance and Synergy) and ARMM-BRIDGE (Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment) areas,” he said. (Noel Punzalan and Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
