COTABATO CITY”•Despite the Mamasapano massacre and the terrorist-led siege of Marawi City, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao continues to build a strong foundation for its future.
Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman said in his recent State of the Region Address at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex here that ARMM HELPS, which was launched in 2013 before either controversial incident happened, remains the region’s flagship program for health, education, livelihood, peace, and governance and synergy.
ARMM HELPS aims to give barangays the ability to create their own peaceful and progressive communities. Since 2014, Hataman said the program has helped 403 villages do just that, each receiving P10 million to put up infrastructure such as houses, barangay halls, public markets, health centers, daycare centers, and children’s parks, and even seed funding for startup businesses.
Another community program, Hataman noted, is the Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment or ARMM BRIDGE. Started in 2015, it aims to uplift the poorest residents in each community in the region, the governor said.
BRIDGE has been implemented in 119 barangays for 5,800 families, who receive housing, food, electricity and water assistance “as part of our strategy to bring them out of poverty,” Hataman said.
In education, the region has seen its literacy rate improve to 88.7 percent in 2015 from just 80.3 percent in 2010, the governor added, citing official Philippine Statistics Authority figures.
ARMM’s “cohort survival rate” “• a measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of education services in an area “• has also risen to 64.12 percent in 2016 for elementary students from 35.83 percent in 2014, and to 95.38 percent for high school students in 2016 from just 52.6 percent in 2014, the governor added.
The improvements are due to the “ghostbusting” the regional office has done with the Department of Education, Hataman said, but ARMM’s quality of education still needs improvement.
The governor noted that the region only had a 59-percent passing rate in the National Achievement Test, a far cry from the 75-percent standard set by the DepEd.
“This is just one of the things we have to pay attention to, especially our co-workers at DepEd,” Hataman said.