Dissemination of laws via IObey project launched in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY --- The city council has a new project using utmost diplomacy in disseminating ordinances sustaining domestic security and complementing the local economy.The project, dubbed IObey, was launched Monday, the city’s chief information officer, Halima Satol-Ibrahim, announced on Wednesday.Senior members of the business community and peace advocacy blocs were quick to express support to the project, the first ever since the city’s creation more than five decades ago.Vice Mayor Graham Dumama, presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panglungsod, led the launching of the IObey project.Its main objective is to inculcate among Muslim, Christian and Lumad residents the need to get involved in governance by complying with old and new ordinances.The council has, in recent months, passed ordinances supporting the momentum of the city’s now noticeable takeoff from conflicts and calamities, seen with the rise of capital intensive trading establishments, including large shopping malls operating on national franchises. We support the IObey project because that can boost further the investment climate here and strengthen the peace and security efforts of our local government, the police and the military, said Sandra Siang, president of the Kutawato Muslim Business Chamber.Dumama, a first termer vice mayor, said they will need the support of media outfits in the city in disseminating how the local government and the public can work in tandem in enforcing local ordinances.He has acknowledged that lack of public awareness on the intricacies of ordinances is one reason for the apparent lackluster compliance by constituents.Satol-Ibrahim said the council and the mayor’s office are now focused on extensive dissemination of the advantages of ordinances crafted to boost domestic security and hasten the city’s socio-economic growth.She said the city council will need the support of the Fourth Estate in pushing the IObey project forward.Bobby Benito, an official of the Regional Reconciliation Commission-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Wednesday what is fascinating for him is the assurance of the city council to first exhaust diplomatic means of educating the public on the intents and penalties stipulated on ordinances quite difficult to enforce. That is peace-building. In peace-building we use diplomacy in organizing law-abiding communities. We want that IObey project to succeed, Benito said.Cotabato City is the regional seat of ARMM, whose capitol is not too far away from the People’s Palace, where the office of Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi is located.Chief Inspector Aldrin Gonzalez, information officer of the Police Regional Office-12, said they are also ready to help implement the IObey project.Gonzalez said while there are still crimes permeating in Cotabato City’s 37 barangays, recorded crime volume in the locality dwindled by about 50 percent in the past nine months compared to statistics collated by PRO-12 in prior periods. With IObey, surely there will be improvements along this line, Gonzalez said.Gonzalez said their regional director, Chief Superintendent Marcelo Morales, was elated learning that banks in Cotabato City now have the highest current deposits compared to banking institutions in other cities in Region 12.A matrix from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation, which went viral on Facebook walls of local residents, indicated that banks here now have P18.7 billion deposits, followed by those in the cities of Koronadal, Kidapawan and Tacurong, which posted P15.5, P11.5 and P5.5 billion, respectively. The PRO-12 is certain Cotabato City’s business climate will improve more with the city council’s IObey project, Gonzalez said.