Alliance To Serve Maranao Villages

From the Manila Bulletin (Feb 16): Alliance To Serve Maranao Villages

The convergent program of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) dubbed Health, Education, Livelihood, Peace and Synergy (HELPS) was launched in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City over the weekend, enabling ARMM executives to immerse with Maranao leaders and villagers in pursuit of the government’s peace overture in Southern Philippines.

Heads of implementing line agencies led by ARMM caretaker-Governor Mujiv Hataman kicked off personally the program in the villages of Rantian in Ditsaan-Ramain, Lanao del Sur, and Cabingan in Marawi City.

Though belonging to opposing political parties in the upcoming elections, host officials including City Mayor Fahad “Pre” Salic and provincial Governor Mamintal “Bombit” Adiong Jr. welcomed the convergent program, saying it would boost their respective thrusts in the localities.

Hundreds of mostly Maranao residents in the two villages received Philippine Health Insurance membership cards, free pneumococcal and tetanus toxoid vaccinations, and eye examinations alongside high-bred seeds of vegetable and orchard plants. Their children were also served with nutrient foods in separate supplemental feeding ceremonies.

Hataman also turned over to the villagers the management of warehouses and solar dryers, which the ARMM government built earlier in the recipient villages, Regional Interior and Local Government Secretary Macmod Mending Jr. said.

Mending alongside ARMM OIC-Vice Governor Bainon Karon, concurrent social welfare regional secretary, and Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., regional health secretary, accompanied Hataman in the launching ceremonies.

The HELPS program, which the Hataman administration conceived last year to synchronize line agencies’ services in preselected communities, was first launched in the stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Albarka, Basilan, early this month.

Hataman said the program will also be launched in selected towns of Maguindanao on February 25.

He said HELPS is a regional version of what President Aquino kicked off on February 11 in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao for the MILF communities. The local version is focused primarily for poor civilian villages, he said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/394298/alliance-to-serve-maranao-villages