COTABATO CITY — The national government empowers anew the local governance in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, by jointly managing with BARMM the supervision of a two-year training course for 86 local government operations officers (LGOOs).
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, head of BARMM’s Ministry of the Interior and Local Government, said LGOOs provide the agency’s frontline social and other basic services in the level of local government units.
Sinarimbo said the performance of the MILG shall at all-time depend on the performance of the 86 trained individuals in their LGUs of assignment.
The graduates were bound by their common story that is worth retelling and remembering, but that which they would not want to go through ever again, said all three of their batch members designated to speak for their class by geographic representation.
Alfaidar Ismael of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, an orphan, topped the LGOO Batch 52-A Sindaw.
He recalled he was motivated by his own experience to join the tough, rigid LGOO training: “My father died under such prevalent circumstances of lack social services in many LGUs…. I joined the previous batch, but my attempt didn’t push through, because my mother died.”
The Muslim Mindanao has also had its share of former LGOOs who topped their LGA Class nationwide in their training batches–among them, current MILG Management Services Director Fausiah Romancap-Abdula.
“This training, conducted by the Local Government Academy of the DILG in partnership with MILG, is historic. In October of 2019, I sought the assistance of the Local Government Academy in training applicants of our Ministry. This birthed a partnership which we are truly proud of,” Sinarimbo said.
“I am equally indebted to the Chief Minister Al Haj Murad Ebrahim and the Senior Minister Abdulraof Macacua who both believed and supported this endeavor,” he added.
During the course of the training, Sinarimbo said, the MILG under him succeeded in gaining the support of Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano “in mobilizing the entire department to provide seasoned trainers and resource persons” from across the different regions of the country.
“I am truly grateful to LGA and the DILG for this partnership and the opportunity to collaborate,” he said.
“Finally, after over two years of training, examinations, simulation exercises, supervised field immersion, a total of 86 Local Government Operations Officers of the MILG graduated,” Sinarimbo said.
“These trainees were drawn from across the provinces of the region and their only passport in entering the ministry was competence and commitment.”