COTABATO CITY – Top brass officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) led today, Feb. 8, the groundbreaking ceremony of a public market and inauguration of a town hall in Midsayap Cluster, Special Geographic Area (SGA).
The officials included BARMM Senior Minister Abdulraof Macacua, Local Government Minister Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo, Public Works Minister Archt. Eduard Guerra, SGA Administrator Mohammad Kelie Antao, SGA Field Office Chief Zaiton Abas, and Col. Jovencio Gonzales of the 602nd Infantry Brigade.
Worth P15-million, the public market will be constructed at Barangay Kapinpilan, while the newly-completed 2-storey town hall worth P3.5-million was built at Barangay Sambulawan.
Both projects were funded by the Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG), through the Bangsamoro Local Economic Support Service (BLESS) for the public market, and Local Government Facilities Development Project (LGFDP) for the barangay hall.
In his speech during the ceremony, Sinarimbo disclosed that public markets rising across strategic locations in the region are one of the priority projects of Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim.
Banking on the importance of having a local market, Sinarimbo explained that “public market would provide venue for locals who want to sell their products while encouraging individuals from other places to trade their commodities as well.”
Once completed, locals would no longer have to visit other places to sell their products, Sinarimbo stressed.
Meanwhile, Senior Minister Macacua emphasized that while the new market resembled the traditional one where exchanges of goods and other business activities transpire, it varies in terms of operation.
“Habang ang nakasanayan nating palengke ay mayroong mga gawaing haram o labag sa Islam, itong ating palengke ay kakaiba sapagkat ang susuportahan lang natin dito ay iyong mga halal o iyong mga pinapayagan lang sa ating mga Muslim,” Macacua explained.
For the newly-built town hall, Barangay Sambulawan Chairman Kadir Abdul expressed his gratitude to the Bangsamoro Government saying: “We are grateful to BARMM for this project as it would make the government closer to its people.”
Minister Sinarimbo, on the other hand, complemented this statement by saying that “Chief Minister Ebrahim really wants the government to be close to the people so that they can feel our presence.”
“As we simply translated that, we realized that barangay is the closest government unit to the people, hence building this infrastructure is one of the enablers to make the government close to the people,” said Sinarimbo. (Abdullah Matucan/BIO)
