Photo from MHSD
COTABATO CITY—At least 100 families in Special Geographic Area (SGA) and Basilan recently received permanent housing units from the Bangsamoro Government.
In two separate awarding ceremonies on June 20 and June 22, the Ministry of Human Settlement and Development (MHSD), led the awarding of the aforementioned units in Barangay Buricain, Pigcawayan in SGA and Barangay Balobo, Lamitan City in Basilan.
MHSD said that the majority of the beneficiaries in SGA and Basilan are families of martyrs and victims of calamities, respectively.
A beneficiary in SGA Abdulkadir Zailon Alon who spoke in Maguindanaon vernacular said in his years of residing in the village, he has never witnessed any housing project implemented in the area, until the BARMM was established.
“Samaya na kagedam nami i tidtu tidto i kapyanan nu Bangsamoro government siya sa kanu inged tanu. Panginsukuren kami sa masla sa BARMM sa kanu kapapedtalaguy nin sa gobyerno kagina madakel den i kagedam tanu a mapia a nakanggulalan nin,” Alon said.
[We now feel the genuine goodness of the Bangsamoro Government in our place; we hugely thank the BARMM in its governance because we have noticed and felt many interventions they have already extended].
Alon said that most of the beneficiaries have lost their parents and spouses in the struggle for justice in the Bangsamoro, and have been residing with their family members in dilapidated shelters.
MHSD Minister Hamid Aminoddin D. Barra said, “the activity was an expression of the initiative and dedication of the Ministry to the preservation of peace”.
“We are rebuilding peace by (re)building houses; this is our practical expression of what the Chief Minister told us —‘Moral Governance’, and this is also how we express our accountability not only to the Bangsamoro Government but to the people, the mujahideen who sacrificed their lives, and to the Philippine government and the Filipinos,” he said.
Senior Minister Abunawas Maslamama was also present at the awarding ceremony.
“The sound and power of talking through peaceful negotiation is louder and stronger than the sound of firing [a] gun,” emphasizing that without the peace negotiation, there would be no projects like that of the MHSD. (Abdullah Matucan/BIO with reports from MHSD)
