2,000 ARMM villages to benefit from PAMANA projects

COTABATO CITY– 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 modalitiesandCapacity development training, 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.