ARMM to hold 1st Bangsamoro Women Leadership Summit

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Jan. 28 (PIA) --- The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will conduct a leadership summit for Bangsamoro women on February 1-2, 2016 to help enhance women’s political participation in local and regional governance.

                      

Sittie Jehanne Mutin, chairperson of the Regional Commission on Bangsamoro Women (RCBW-ARMM), said the 1st ARMM Bangsamoro Women Leadership Summit aims to strengthen women's roles and leadership, power and decision-making towards transformative governance.

The summit is a joint activity of the RCBW-ARMM and the Department of Education (DepEd)-ARMM. It will be held at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the ARMM Compound in Cotabato City and is expected to draw in around 1,000 women leaders from civil society organizations, local government units and the academe. Some women educators from different parts of the region will also be invited. 

The ARMM is composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basian, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Mutin said they have invited at least 12 resource persons whose background and expertise are on women in local governance and other women advocacies for the two-day summit.

"The projection is to develop a critical mass of Bangsamoro women leaders who will lead and be part of the change in governance and peace building," Mutin added.

She said the summit, which carries the theme "Strengthening Bangsamoro Women's Leadership towards Transformative Governance”, will give participants “an opportunity to understand and appreciate deeper the intricacies of transformative governance that is responsive to the cultural identity of the Bangsamoro people.”

Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta for Women promotes the full participation and equitable representation of women in all aspects of society particularly in the decision-making and policy-making processes in government and public spheres entities in order to fully realize their roles as agents and beneficiaries of development.

The RCBW, being the principal women development agency of the ARMM, has initiated programs designed to empower and develop women's rights and welfare. The programs include trainings on basic gender and development (GAD) concepts, GAD Focal Point System, gender mainstreaming, and basic gender analysis. (BPI-ARMM/PIA-10)

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ARMM builds new emergency operation center

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Jan. 27 (PIA) ---  Residents in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will get better calamity assistance and services once the construction of a new, fully-equipped emergency response operation center is completed, a regional official said.

Ramil Masukat, regional disaster risk reduction management officer, said the regional government will put up a three-storey building to serve as headquarters of the region’s Humanitarian Emergency Action ResponseTeam (ARMM-HEART).

The ARMM-HEART was created in 2013 to respond to emergency and humanitarian needs during man-made or natural disasters in the region.

Masukat said the new ARMM-HEART Operation Center, which is located inside the ARMM compound in Cotabato City, will have state-of-the-art disaster monitoring facilities and that additional rescue equipment will be made.

He said the project will augment the present capacity of the ARMM-HEART. “We have insufficient facilities and equipment to fully cater our constituents in times of calamities and disasters. The project will make the delivery of our services more effective. We will still monitor 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The project has a total cost of around P 97,000,000, which was earmarked from the ARMM’s General Appropriations Act for 2015. ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman and Executive Secretary Atty. Laisa Alamia led its groundbreaking on January 18, 2016. Its construction, which is being undertaken by Maguindanao’s 1st District Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-ARMM, is expected to be finished in September 2016.

Masukat said they continue capacitating their volunteers and strengthening their partnership with other stakeholders as the building of the new operation center gets underway. 

  

“Capacity building for our volunteers will continue. We will also boost our partnership with other stakeholders like radio communication groups, people’s organizations, civil society organizations, Local Government Units, Philippine National Police, military, the International Monitoring Team, and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH),” he said.

ARMM-HEART is a convergence of agencies inclined with disaster preparedness and response. This includes the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Regional Planning and Development Office (RPDO) among others. (BPI-ARMM/PIA-10)

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PAMANA program to benefit over 2,000 ARMM barangays in 2016

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, January 27 (PIA) --- More than 2,000 barangays in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will receive projects this year under the national government’s Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program through the region’s Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-ARMM).

The projects would be delivered under the PAMANA Community Driven Development (CDD) Expansion and PAMANA MNLF Program.

The PAMANA CDD Expansion will target a total of 1,777 barangays in the entire region while the PAMANA MNLF is set to be implemented in 291 pre-identified barangays in 74 ARMM municipalities. Both initiatives are in their last year of implementation.

Rahima Alba, DSWD-ARMM Secretary and concurrent PAMANA program manager, said this year’s PAMANA will be geared towards sustainability of the cooperatives the program has established and supported.

“We want them (beneficiary cooperatives) to continue operating, and for them to have even wider opportunities in their localities. Kahit tapos na ang programa, sila mismo ang magpatuloy ng kanilang pag-unlad (Even if the program ends, they can sustain their development),” Secretary Alba said.

This year, PAMANA CDD will boost its implementation through the Integrated Community Enterprising Market Program. This will augment livelihood opportunities in conflict-affected and conflict-vulnerable communities in three modalities: capacity development trainings; production of inputs; and, additional capital assistance.

Each barangay would have a total project cost allocation of P300,000.

The PAMANA MNLF program, on the other hand, will provide services to the families of MNLF combatants through healthcare benefits, college scholarships, tech-voc capacity development, and livelihood ventures support. Each identified MNLF cooperative is allotted a project cost ceiling worth P885,000 from DSWD-ARMM.

From January 15 to 18, DSWD-ARMM has conducted an orientation and planning workshop that marked the start of the 2016 project implementation of the program. The event was designed to orient the stakeholders at the provincial level on the new process and mechanisms of implementation of the last cycle of PAMANA.

The program’s provincial teams, provincial social welfare officers, project development officers, provincial focal persons, and special project staff attended the three-day activity spearheaded by the agency’s Regional Project Management Office.

Also present are officials from the PAMANA National Project Management Office, which is under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPPAP).

Howard Cafugauan, OPAPP assistant secretary for Special Programs, said by the end of 2015, a total of 5,659 households were covered with health insurance, 400 beneficiaries received study grants, and 5,115 households – specifically those displaced by the 2008 conflict brought about by the rejection of the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain – were provided with shelters.

PAMANA is a project aimed at making citizens become stronger agents of peace and development in the region and in the country. This is the current administration’s peace and development framework anchored on promoting inclusive growth and lasting peace. (BPI-ARMM/PIA-10)

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Bangsamoro law is a way to justice, says Bukidnon exec

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Jan. 26 (PIA) --- A mayor in Bukidnon expressed his support to the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to address social injustices.

I believe that it (BBL) will show us the way to justice, determination and peace,” said Damulog Mayor Romeo Tiongco during a multi-sectoral forum on the BBL held recently in Malaybalay City.

 

Rather than spending hours and weeks over terminologies, Tiongco said the BBL must be tried and proven.

“If you have a vision and you will wait until that vision becomes very clear, then it will remain as a vision. But when you implement your vision, it will become clearer in the process,” he cited.

Congress only has until February 5 to pass the BBL which seeks to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with broader powers to address the decades-long aspiration of the Moro people.

The multi-sectoral forum in Malaybalay City was organized by the Philippine Information Agency in collaboration with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

It was the last leg of the BBL Advocacy Roadshow in Northern Mindanao aimed to promote deeper understanding on the Bangsamoro Peace Process, stimulate informed discussions on the key thematic areas of the proposed BBL, and address myths and misconceptions about the proposed Bangsamoro law. 

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