COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao—The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao enacted into law last Thursday the Muslim Mindanao Autonomy Act No. 325 or the Regional Public Works Act of 2016, Gov. Mujiv Hataman said.
Hataman and Regional Legislative Assembly Speaker Datu Roonie Sinsuat signed the decree which appropriated P10.1-billion budget for the next Fiscal Year for the region’s Department of Public Works and Highways.
The Act stipulates that the DPWH budget “shall be used to construct, develop, upgrade, and operate or maintain roads, highways, bridges, water supplies, flood controls, sea ports, airports and other infrastructure projects except buildings.”
Hataman has tasked the Regional Project Monitoring Committee to validate the status of project implementation, based on approved programs of work, project specifications and time frame even as the body also allowed a 15 percent mobilization fund for a project implemented by contract and 50 percent for a project enforced by administration.
DPWH regional secretary Don Mustapha Loong said the projects, designed to improve the people’s life, are “in support of peace and development of the Hataman administration,” stressing that the region’s massive infrastructure program is expected to generate a significant number of jobs for qualified workers in Sulu, Maguindanao, Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi.
Loong said the infrastructure projects, if necessary, may be decentralized to different district engineering offices in the ARMM’s five provinces to hasten their completion.