PAMANA infra projects benefit MNLF areas

From the Philippine Information Agency (Mar 19): PAMANA infra projects benefit MNLF areas

Several infrastructure projects implemented under the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program in the different recipient-barangays within and outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have already been completed, benefiting the so-called “MNLF areas.”

Director Enrico dela Torre told a group of government information officers attending the three-day workshop on communicating the gains of PAMANA held here at the Pinnacle Hotel starting March 18-21 that the infrastructure projects ranges from farm-to-market roads, bridges, postharvest facilities, water supply systems to health centers.

Others have been constructed in “peace and development communities” (PDCs), the places where the camps of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were situated prior to the signing of the peace agreement between the MNLF and the government in 1996, he added.

Dela Torre also said the PAMANA-PDC projects have been implemented through a multi-stakeholder scheme in which the community people are the ones identifying the infrastructure to be constructed in coordination with the implementing agencies and a “third party,” which comes from a non-government organization, that would certify the veracity of the project.

With the implementation of PAMANA-PDC, dela Torre observed that the community people are now actively involved in seeking government’s assistance/projects that would answer their needs.

The provinces which received PAMANA-PDC projects are Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Maguindanao of ARMM, Zambonga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay of Region 9, Lanao del Norte of Region 10, Davao del Sur of Region 11, and North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani of Region 12.

PAMANA is the national government’s peace and development framework to respond and strengthen peace building, reconstruction, and development in conflict-affected areas (CAAs) as spelled out in President Aquino’s five priority programs which include the attainment of “just, inclusive and lasting peace” among others.

http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=1431363654096