COTABATO CITY – Residents of Kabuntalan Municipality in Maguindanao will soon have their own public market following Bangsamoro Government’s successful groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. 3 in Barangay Gambar.
Worth P25-million and with a total area of 640 square meters, the market is funded under the Bangsamoro Appropriations Act 2020, through the Bangsamoro Local Economic Support Service (BLESS) program of the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG).
MILG Minister Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo who personally graced the occasion cited that “one of the engines of economic development is exchanges of goods and services.”
“People have different necessities but the resources available to them are limited, hence market is a good venue for that,” Sinarimbo further said.
“On local government unit (LGU) level, public market would also serve as additional income stream on top of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of the town,” he added.
BARMM Senior Minister Abdulraof Macacua and Public Works Minister Archt. Eduard Guerra were also present during the ceremony.
Macacua, who hailed from the said barangay, said that the public market “is not just an MILG project but this a BARMM initiative for its constituents,” Macacua said.
Meanwhile, Guerra shared his memories of the area being historical in terms of the Bangsamoro struggle. “This is a historical place so we must not waste the infrastructure project built in this place,” he said.
On behalf of town Mayor Datu Salaban Diocolano, Municipal Administrator Engr. Efrel Oric Midtimbang, affirmed that “LGU Kabuntalan believes in the core purpose of the project to spur economic dynamism in the locality.” (Abdullah Matucan/BIO)
