By Noel Y. Punzalan
MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao, April 16 (PNA) – – This impoverished town, which was the site of the Jan. 25 bloody misencounter between state police forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) militants, is now a recipient of some Php 925-million worth of government infrastructure projects.
The undertaking includes the construction of schools, bridges, water and sanitation facilities and road network projects under a Php 874.5-M budget, and another Php 50-M allotment for the 85-hectare Kris-Mamasapano irrigation extension system.
“We expect that the irrigation project alone would jumpstart the economic condition of this agricultural town,” Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Francis Pangilinan told residents here during a visit to the Tukanalipao area on Thursday.
National Irrigation Administrator Florencio Padernal accompanied the limping Pangilinan who walked across the Tukanalipao cornfields here with the aid of a walking stick due to a foot sprain.
The cornfield was the exact site of the misencounter that snuffed off the lives of 44 elite personnel of the police’s Special Action Force; 17 MILF rebels and five civilians amid the ongoing GPH-MILF comprehensive peace overture.
The SAF unit successfully neutralized one of their two targets, Malaysian terror bomber Zulkipli bin Hir alias Marwan during the operation but failed to net his cohort, Maguindanaon terror bomber Basit Usman, who is currently the subject of nationwide military manhunt.
“Pinapangako naming sa inyo na di naming kayo pababayaan,” ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman said for his part in same visit.
The ARMM’s public works office has up to Dec. 31, 2015 to make the irrigation system fully operational, while part of the road-schools-water facility works amounting Php 67.3-M is targeted for completion within the time frame for the Mamasapano area alone.
“The rest of the proposed road network connecting this town to its neighboring areas is up for completion by 2016,” Engr. Emil Sadain, ARMM public works chief, said. (PNA)