by Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Dec 25 (PIA) – The city government of Lamitan in Basilan is recipient of an incentive as one of the best performing local government units in the Autonomus region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP) has officially revealed on Friday the top eight municipalities in the ARMM that will receive an additional P1.5-million funding support from the project following a careful and stringent selection process.
Aside from Lamitan, the other towns include the municipalities of Upi and Datu Paglas in Maguindanao, Jolo and Indanan in Sulu, Bongao and Sitangkai in Tawi-Tawi, and Wao in Lanao del Sur.
The Bureau of Public Information announced that a total of 24 towns in the region will be granted by the ASFP with a P1.5-million grant thru its newly established municipal block grant (MBG) scheme.
According to Irene Fernandez, head of ASFP’s Institutional Strengthening and Governance (ISG) component said the towns were selected based on their performance on local governance, implementations of ASFP-supported projects and fiscal handling.
The local governments of these recipient towns are required to provide a specified counterpart, bringing the total amount of the project that will be implemented to around P2-million, she said.
ASFP Project Manager Nasser Sinarimbo said the MBG is ASFP’s way of “recognizing the support and performance of local government units (LGUs) especially in the implementation of ASFP supported projects in their area.”
He said the funding support is an incentive for local governments to undertake participatory and community-driven development projects.
The MBG aims to upscale the project’s engagement from the barangay to the municipal level adopting the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach as an incentive for good governance.
The ASFP earmarked a total of P36-million for the MBG out of the rolled-out P1.4 billion additional financing it secured from the World Bank.
According to Sinarimbo the top eight will be the first batch to receive the grant while funds for the remaining 16 municipalities are scheduled for release next year.
ASFP handles the largest and only foreign loan assisted project that is being directly supervised by the ARMM government. It has been cited by the World Bank for its satisfactory performance, giving way to the approval of an additional financing.
The additional loan would allow ASFP to cater to 596 more communities across ARMM that were not previously covered by the project. Close to a thousand communities in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi have already benefitted from life-enhancing projects introduced by ASFP in its seven-year run. (BPI-ARMM/PIA9-ZBST)