COTABATO CITY, Oct. 14 (PNA) — Thirteen years after joining the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Basilan now has its own functional District Engineering Office (DEO), officials said.
Public works officials in the ARMM said the Department of Budget and Management also approved the hiring of 44 career service employees to help oversee the operation of the new Basilan DEO.
Composed of 11 towns, Basilan used to be under the Administrative Region 9.
DPWH in Region 9 has supervision and control of the Basilan DEO until the island province became part of ARMM 13 years ago.
Officials and residents of Basilan are grateful to the efforts of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his public works secretary, Engineer Emil Sadain, for putting up the new DEO, according to Lamitan City Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay. Lamitan is the capital of BAsilan.
The new district office operates under the direct supervision and control of the executive department of ARMM.
Basilan voted in favor of the inclusion of the island province into the expanded ARMM during a plebiscite in 2001.
Basilan’s new DEO is located near the port of Lamitan City. “This is a very good development. This will hasten the implementation of infrastructure projects in Basilan,” Furigay said in a statement.
DWPH-ARMM 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, Sadain said whose leadership’s reform led to DPWH-ARMM P500 million-worth savings of state funds in the past two years.
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. (PNA)