MARAWI CITY —Officials are bringing back hopes of restoring light and livelihood to half of Lanao del Sur, following recent visits here by top executives, including President Rodrigo Duterte.
The latest to bring in the good news was Vice President Leni Robredo, who launched here last week her office’s Angat Buhay Program.
It can be recalled that amid security concerns following a roadside explosion, President Duterte visited Lanao de Sur in January to address a fledgling extremist threat, claiming to be inspired by the Middle East-based Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or Isis.
Robredo said a continuing dialogue among sectors could help bring back the province’s huge losses in basic social services, power utility, health, agriculture livelihood and development, and telecommunications facilities.
Duterte has promised local officials he would be sending more development programs and projects to Lanao del Sur —the province of his maternal ancestor —including the construction of a big hospital with modern facilities.
Vice Governor Mamintal “Bombit” Alonto Adiong Jr. said officials have added another factor to the usual social indicators in poverty surveys—the number of households that have been without electricity in 25 of the province’s 41 towns and one city, during the last three decades or more.
Residents said they have been deprived of electricity for decades, despite being host communities to major hydropower generation facility of the state-run National Power Corp.
NPC officials were quick to pass the blame to the direct community distributor, the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative or Lasureco. The electric cooperative then cited compounded indebtedness of household consumers and end-user local government units.
The Office of the Vice President and the Provincial Government of Lanao del Sur signed a memorandum of agreement on March 21 to implement the “Angat Buhay: Partnerships Against Poverty Program,” at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol here.
Adiong said the Angat Buhay Program will “focus on four key areas, namely agri-fisheries, health, rural electrification and education.”
Lanao del Sur, despite being a main producer of corn and rice, has remained in the list of the poorest provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The province is one of the five provinces of the ARMM that surveys have rated poor, based on the 2016 Financial Expenditure and Income Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Local statistics showed poverty indicators include such factors as number of unemployed individuals, number of households without access to safe water and to sanitary facilities, as well as children aged 3 to 17 not attending school.
Meanwhile, agriculture development leads government efforts to restore normalcy in war-torn Butig town, and to take Lanao del Sur off the country’s list of poorest provinces, officials here said.
Butig has twice been under siege, most recently by extremists of the Maute Group, with ensuing clashes with government forces causing massive displacement of civilian residents.
The irrigation systems in Butig and Malabang towns, both recently visited by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, were dilapidated and hardly serviceable.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Bedjoria Soraya Alonto-Adiong said the Communal Irrigation System in Barangay Madaya, Malabang town should undergo massive repair to serve some 200 hectares of rice field and help improve the province’s economy.
Butig Mayor Dimnatang Pansar and Lanao del Sur Provincial Agriculture Officer Pangalian Balindong, Jr. said the national government has virtually neglected the local irrigation systems in almost 50 years.
The powers and functions of the National Irrigation Administration, an agency under the DA, has not been devolved by the national government to the ARMM0.
ARMM Regional Agriculture Secretary Alexander Alonto Jr. said the setback in local agriculture development would have to be addressed with both short- and long-term solutions.
Similarly, rice production has gone down in Balabagan town because of poorer service of its CIS which should also be rehabilitated.
Alonto-Adiong said perennial power outage in coastal Malabang and Balabagan towns have also adversely affected the people’s livelihood amid weak economic activities, mainly caused by frequent blackout.
Piñol said for an immediate assistance, the Department of Agriculture would provide local farmers with four units of heavy-duty farm tractors, rice-and-corn convertible harvesters; 3,000 bags of hybrid rice seeds; 1,875 bags of corn seeds and bags of fertilizers, “to make agriculture vibrant again in Butig, and in the whole of Lanao Sur.”
Fishermen in Malabang and Balabagan told Piñol and DA Assistant Secretary Ranibai Dilangalen that their production level has decreased due to lack of viable livelihood support programs.
Piñol said DA would give them 50 more motorized fiberglass bancas, in addition to 10 units received by pre-assessed groups of local fishermen to benefit 100 coastal fishing families.
The fishers said the government should support a small local industry of boat-making and mangrove crab-fattening for alternative means of livelihood in coastal villages in adjoining Malabang and Balabagan towns.
Piñol urged local officials to sit down with officials of national agencies concerned for long-term solution to poor or non-serviceable irrigation systems, and massive power outage.
But in the meantime, Piñol said, he would work out for the deployment and more permanent anchorage in Moro Gulf of two units of power barges.
Piñol also urged local cassava and corn farmers to organize, so DA could effectively address their concerns — which included their need for farm tractors; the lack of capital fund to sustain procurement of farm inputs; poor market access, and low price-tag on their produce by local buyers, due to monopoly.
He also proposed that a viable farmers’ cooperative can develop a credit facility window for its members. He said the local cassava production can be linked to foreign market, given sustainability of supply requirement.
