Small Basilan barangay bounces back from conflicts through HELPS program

COTABATO CITY -- There is a barangay in Basilan whose folks brags about how they have risen from armed conflicts with special government interventions that ushered in improvements in the locality. The now peaceful Barangay Tairan in Lantawan town, home to mixed Muslim and Christian groups, is even touted as the most progressive barangay in Basilan today.Municipal officials said governance in Barangay Tairan was strengthened in the past three years by the multi-faceted Health, Education Livelihood, Peace, Governance and Synergy (HELPS) program of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).The HELPS program, meant to administratively empower barangay governments in the autonomous region, was planned in 2012 by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his subordinate-officials, among them Baintain Adil-Ampatuan, director of the Regional Planning and Development Office.Barangay Tairan is now a popular showcase of an efficient barangay government, run by leaders with different religions and ethnic identities, frequented by local tourists.Accompanied by officials of ARMM’s Department of Interior and Local Government, a group of barangay leaders from other towns in Basilan and from the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi visited Barangay Tairan recently for a Lakbay Aral” educational tour for them see how the HELPS program brought in socio-economic developments in the area.Carlito Suela, chairman of Barangay Tairan, said they are thankful to the ARMM government for helping develop their barangay via the vaunted HELPS intervention.The HELPS program was first pioneered in late 2012 in a hundred barangays, from among 2,490 barangays in the autonomous region, to decentralize the delivery of health, education, social welfare and livelihood interventions to recipient-areas.Barangay Tairan is dotted with coconut, coffee, cacao and orchard farms. There are also vast swaths of rubber plantations in the area.Suela said the agricultural potentials of Barangay Tairan were showcased extensively last February 8 during their celebration of the 21stfounding anniversary of the Tairan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Agricultural Multi-purpose Cooperative.The peasant group is comprised of now soberly co-existing Muslim and Christian members, many of them locked in bloody squabbles for control of arable lands in the past.Two senior cooperative officials, Rogelio Caarpio and Agapito Alay, both said the livelihood components of the HELPS program also improved the productivity of the local farming and fishing communities.Tairan has a total land area of 1,400 hectares, populated with more than 3,000 culturally-pluralistic folks.Suela, who was municipal councilor in Lantawan for two terms prior to his assumption as barangay chairman, said they get more than P100,000 worth of Internal Revenue Allotment monthly from the national coffer, which they handle in manner open to scrutiny anytime by his constituents. From HELPS we learned how to become efficient handlers of government funds earmarked for services for all sectors in the barangay,” he said.Suela said the ARMM’s introduction of the HELPS program to Barangay Tairan helped address constraints besetting their barangay government, such as lack of fiscal and administrative capabilities, to pursue more pro-poor” projects for the local communities.The ARMM government implements the HELPS program parallel with the domestic security and socio-economic thrusts of municipal and provincial governments that have jurisdiction over beneficiary-barangays.