By Teng Datu, Cotabato City Bureau Chief Davao City — Local government units (LGUs) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) pledged a total of P4.196 billion to fund programs for their constituents in support of the Armm Regional Development Framework 2016-2019. Local officials from across the region drafted the programs, projects, services and activities (PPSA) during the 3rd Armm Local Government Summit held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 at the SM Lanang Premier’s SMX Convention Center, here. Atty. Noor Hafizullah Abdullah, Armm’s Interior and Local Government Secretary, said the development framework represents the aspirations of the Armm constituents reflecting different concerns in every province and town. The plans will be implemented in 2018 and 2019 and would be bankrolled by development funds from each LGU addressing issues of poverty, socio-economic, security, disaster preparedness, and infrastructure. The PPSA was aligned with the Armm Regional Development Framework, which is anchored on six fronts:
  • agri-fishery development under rural development;
  • functional LGUs, improved regional government service delivery, and increased people’s participation under good governance at all levels;
  • anti-terrorism, illegal drugs, and crimes under public order and security;
  • health and nutrition, education, livelihood, water and sanitation, and social welfare and protection under basic services for all;
  • disaster preparedness, response and rehabilitation and environmental protection and management under climate change adaptation, and disaster resiliency; and,
  • infrastructure support for all components.
“The framework is a key instrument for the LGUs to properly and equitably allocate development funds to ensure improvements of welfare of communities,” Abdullah said. Most of the development funds, he added, were concentrated on alleviating poverty in region, being the poorest in the country. In the past years, the bulk of funds of the Armm annual budget went to infrastructure with roughly P20 billion allocated to that sector in 2015. “In the last three years, nag-focus po tayo sa infrastructure, and in the next three years, we will focus on anti-poverty programs,” Armm Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia said. (with reports from armm bpi)