by Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Dec 23 (PIA) – The Regional Planning and Development Office (RPDO) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) recently held a provincial validation workshop in Basilan on the ARMM situational analysis on children and women.
Basilan provincial administrator Engr. Tahir Latip said that the problems of Mindanao, and most particularly that of Basilan, are insurmountable and he challenged the regional planning and development office and the key stakeholders to “come-up with real situation of women and children in the province.”
Lininding M. Lao, RPDO-ARMM chief said that the consultation-workshop last December 5 in Isabela City, Basilan was intended to gather key government agencies and non-government organizations to fill-in the gaps and provide additional input and data to the draft ARMM report on the situational analysis of children and women.
He told some thirty participants to validate the inputs and data contained in the draft. “Kayo [to participants] ang makapagsasabi ng katotohanan o kung meron pang kailangang idagdad o emphasis sa situation of children and women, including persons with disabilities,” he further stressed.
“Masakit ang katotohanan, pero kung hindi natin sabihin ang katotohanan, hindi natin mahahanapan ng solusyon [to the problems],” (The truth hurts, but if no truth is told, no solutions to problems could be found), he said.
Lao said the report is crucial for the intervention programs that will be formulated by the incoming seven country program for children of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which will start implementation next year.
In his presentation, Lao said that based on a DSWD study there are about 532,000 poor households were identified in the ARMM. And of the 79,233 households assessed in Basilan province, 41,142 were identified poor household or some 51.93%.
The data also showed that majority of Basilan’s population are dependents (children and youth), which means that the government needs more social services for this sector.
In validating the draft situational analysis, the participants were grouped according to indicators: survival, development, and protection and participation.
The overall objective of the study is to come-up with a situation analysis on children and women in the ARMM (a) using the rights based approach which addresses and examines the capacity of the national and regional and local government to provide for the rights of children and how children are empowered to claim their rights and (b) based on empirical data to provide a basis for effective and efficient future interventions for children. (PIA9-ZBST)