Meranao families get food aid from regional BRIDGE program

COTABATO CITY --- More than a thousand Meranao families benefited from the latest food rationing activity in Lanao del Sur of a government poverty alleviation program.The office here of the Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment, or ARMM-BRIDGE, said in a statement Sunday that 1,050 families in Lanao del Sur received food rations during dispersal operations in the province last October 15.The activity covered Lanao del Sur’s Picong, Kapatagan, Piagapo, Saguiaran, Kapai, Ditsaan, Bubong, Molundo, Lumba Bayabao, Butig and Lumbayanague towns.The ARMM-BRIDGE, operating under the executive department of the autonomous region, is focused on providing impoverished families with four basic amenities --- food, shelter, clean water and electricity.The program was pioneered more than three years ago by the office of ARMM’s chief executive, Mujiv Hataman, now in his second term as regional governor.Latest records from state auditors indicated that the ARMM-BRIDGE had built in the past 18 months more than a thousand core shelters for poor barangay folk in the region’s five provinces, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and in the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.The core shelter project is a joint initiative of the ARMM-BRIDGE, the office of the region’s public works secretary, Engr. Don Loong, and the eight district engineers in the autonomous region.The ARMM-BRIDGE office in Cotabato City said the 1,050 families that benefited from its October 15 food distribution activity in Lanao del Sur each received a sack of rice, milk, cooking oil, eggs, canned tuna, Monggo beans, iodized salt, brown sugar and coffee.