DPWH-ARMM put up district office in Basilan

COTABATO CITY - Basilan now has a functional District Engineering Office (DEO) after having been bereft of such outfit since the island province became part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao via a plebiscite in 2001.The central office of the Department of Budget and Management had also recently approved the hiring of 44 career service employees to help oversee the operation of the new Basilan DEO.Basilan, which has 11 towns, originally belonged to Administrative Region 9, which also has jurisdiction over the Zamboanga peninsula.The office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Region 9 was in control of the Basilan DEO until the island province became part of ARMM 13 years ago.Vice-Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, capital of Basilan, on Tuesday said they are grateful to ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his public works secretary, Engineer Emil Sadain, for putting up the new DEO.Registered voters in Basilan voted in favor of the inclusion of the island province into the expanded ARMM during a plebiscite in 2001.The newly-constructed Basilan DEO is located near the port of Lamitan City, a beneficiary of costly infrastructure projects bankrolled by the DPWH-ARMM. This is a very good development. This will hasten the implementation of infrastructure projects in Basilan,” Furigay said, referring to the new DEO.Sadain said they spent P7.3 million for the construction of the new Basilan DEO building, drawn from savings generated by the DPWH-ARMM during the recent fiscal quarters.The DPWH-ARMM had saved some P500 million-worth of state funds in the past two years owing to the stringent management of its coffer since Hataman first took over from Adiong the region’s gubernatorial post, on caretaker basis, in December 2011.Sadain’s office was recently adjudged as ARMM’s best performer,” from December 2011 to July this year, by a board comprised of representatives from different regional agencies and officials of civil society organizations.Sadain said the new Basilan DEO office is now open to the public, manned by competent engineers and administrative personnel.