Lawyer Mustapha Sambolawan, ASFP manager, said they are confident they will get WB’s approval for another package because of the satisfactory implementation of the bank’s projects in the ARMM.
“We in the ARMM can feel that the World Bank, through its representatives in the country, is aware of the need for continuing assistance that can hasten the region’s socio-economic growth,” Sambolawan said.
LGU officials in the ARMM are apparently behind Sambolawan.
Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan in Basilan and Fahad “Pre” Salic of Marawi City have vouched for the good implementation of ASFP projects funded by the WB.
Furigay said that Lamitan has been a recipient of World Bank-assisted projects that have improved the lives of people in various communities.
“All of the projects the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency bankrolled through the ASFP have honestly been implemented,” Furigay said in a radio interview.
Salic said that foreign-funded projects like that of the ASFP have flourished, especially with the close coordination between the ASFP and ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan.
Among the success stories that ASFP backed is the water system and four-door latrine projects in Barangay Tandiong Rogan in Poona Bayabao in Lanao del Sur.
Community leader Aisah Angagao said life has become convenient with the ASFP project. “Women now have privacy when bathing because there is a now a latrine in our barangay which both men and women can use,” Angagao said.
Tandiong Rogan is not far from the coast of Lake Lanao, and is traversed by a river. But its residents did not have a good supply of safe drinking water, until the WB came and the ASFP helped the community build a water system in the “bayanihan” tradition. Angagao said.
Sambolawan and the ARMM’s chief planner, Adel Dumagay, said efforts have been made on all fronts to convince the WB to grant another development package for ARMM communities after the current project ends in June. (Malu Cadeliña Manar / MindaNews)
