COTABATO CITY – With efforts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to build empowered communities, about a million people from 553 barangay or villages have received various projects through the region’s flagship program dubbed ARMM’s Health, Education, Livelihood, Peace and Governance, and Synergy (ARMM-HELPS).
Since the program’s implementation in 2014, the regional government has earmarked P6.2 billion for high-impact projects. ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman reiterated that the regional government continues to make greater progress in improving the quality of the peoples’ lives, improve their living environment, and create more development opportunities in beneficiary communities.
Official data from ARMM-HELPS showed a total of 1,062 of 1,713 infrastructure projects targeted for construction were completed; 374 of 563 cooperatives were served, and 257 of 530 barangay halls were built. “Projects for 2018 are on-going and we hope to implement all of these before the transition to the new Bangsamoro entity,” Anwar Upahm, ARMM-HELPS program manager said.
ARMM-HELPS is a convergence initiative of the regional government and is regarded as the centerpiece of the Hataman administration. It was established to achieve a more coordinated and focused intervention at the barangay level and eventually to create maximum impact of services delivered to the community.
Projects include provision of essential medicines, setting up of birthing facilities, construction of barangay health stations and water and sanitation projects, construction of community learning centers, support to standard madrasah development program, and delivery of basic livelihood and enterprising projects, among others.
Gov. Hataman said he is confident that before the new Bangsamoro political entity comes in, the ARMM government has already helped improve the lives of at least a million Bangsamoro people and has strengthened local governance in the region.
“Ito naman talaga ang goal natin na maramdaman ng mga kababayan natin na may gobyernong handang tumulong sa kanila,” Gov. Hataman said.
Projects that have not been completed since 2014 will be finished within this year, said Upahm. (Bureau of Public Information)
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