ARMM answers allegations of unfinished projects in Sulu province

Patikul, Sulu, Philippines (PR/Posted by The Redline News Philippines ) – Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao led the regional government party in a forum held in Sulu to respond to complaints about unfinished government projects on Monday, January 16.

Former Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan presented the alleged unfinished projects including schools and hospitals, among others. Tan also sent a formal complaint to the regional government back in December 2016.

Regional Vice-Governor Haroun Alrashid Lucman Jr., DOH-ARMM Secretary Dr. Kadil Sinolinding, DPWH-ARMM Secretary Engr. Don Mustapha Loong and DepEd-ARMM Assistant Secretary Alfhadar Pajiji were also present in the said forum.

Hospitals and barangay health stations

Tan’s formal complaint included the alleged unfinished construction of hospitals and rural health stations, including the Maimbung Municipal Hospital.

Sinolinding said the P10 million fund for Maimbung Hospital Maimbung was under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) funded by the Transition Investment Support Program (TISP).

The construction of the hospital stopped after the TISP-Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) fund was declared unconstitutional.

Housing projects and school buildings

Meanwhile, Lucman, who is also the Department of Social Welfare and Development-ARMM (DSWD-ARMM) secretary, said concerns regarding the housing projects being carried out by the Habitat for Humanity Philippines could only be answered by the DSWD Central Office since the project underwent national bidding.

Meanwhile, the budget for some classrooms and school building projects in different towns in Sulu were not yet downloaded by the Department of Education Central Office to the DepEd-ARMM causing the projects to remain unfinished, DepEd-ARMM Assistant Secretary Alfhadar Pajiji said.

Tan also claimed that the province of Sulu was supposed to get funding of 328 classrooms in 2013 alone.

Loong, in response, said that based on DPWH data, only 42 classrooms were given fund by the DepEd Central Office amounting to P26 million pesos for the whole province.

Hataman added that the budget for additional classrooms in the region for 2013 is still with the DepEd Central Office.

Future Collaboration

“We are helping the regional government monitor the projects of the government under the regional governor’s leadership because this is not a matter of fault finding; my intent is to help the regional governor,” Tan said.

Hataman replied, “rest assured that the ARMM government is very transparent, and we are very willing to be rectified.”

After the Sulu provincial government forum, Governor Hataman led the turn-over ceremony of the P30-million Sagay-Sagay water system (Phase IV) in Talipao town.

Manis Baluan, 77 year-old resident of Barangay Buntod, said that with this new water supply system, they will now have safe and clean drinking water.

“I was born and raised here, but this is the first time that a project like this was implemented in our barangay,” Baluan said. (Bureau of Public Information)