MARAWI OUTREACH MISSION. A relief worker distributes hygiene kits to the children during the daylong outreach mission by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) government under its Project Tabang in Barangay Boganga, Marawi City, Lanao del Sur on Friday (Oct. 4). Some 1,000 residents (inset) who are mostly victims of the Marawi siege in 2017, benefitted from the program. (Photo courtesy of READI-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY – Some 5,000 residents of Marawi City received on Friday basic government services from the Project Tabang of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Among the services rendered were free medical and dental procedures and legal services. They were also given free medicines, relief packs, hygiene kits, and garbage bins.
The beneficiaries, who also participated in a job fair, are families affected by the Marawi siege that occurred from May to October 2017.
“The families have been living in an evacuation site in Barangay Boganga since the siege erupted,” said lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government and concurrent head of the Rapid Emergency Action On Disaster Incidence (READI) -BARMM).
BARMM Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim, who graced the conduct of Project Tabang, said the recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi city is one of the fledgling region’s 12-Point Development Agenda during its ongoing transition phase.
BARMM launched Project Tabang or the Tulong Alay sa Bangsamorong Nangangailangan on Sept. 2, 2019, to hasten the delivery of basic government services to communities across the region.
Among the highlights of Friday’s Project Tabang was the launching of the “AMBAG Program” or the “Ayudang Medikal mula sa Bangsamoro Government” which promotes the accessibility to health services by the poor to free medicine and medical procedures.
The AMBAG program was launched through the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Bangsamoro government and the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City.
BARMM officials also turned over 20 scholarships for students in the city, two tractors to farmers’ cooperatives, and 1,000 housing units to families who lost their homes during the siege.
Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra Usman said the city has yet to recover but what is certain is that the support from the BARMM and other humanitarian and government agencies keeps them going.
Ebrahim also announced the planned construction of the new Integrated Provincial Health Office of Lanao del Sur and modern public markets for the towns of Kapatagan and Madamba by 2020.
"We hope that by 2020, when we have already the resources, we can do more, In Shaa Allah (God willing)," he said. (PNA)
