COTABATO CITY—The national government trains its priorities on
generating foreign assistance to improve the state of education in the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where millions of pesos in
public funds for its schoolchildren’s education had reportedly gone to
corruption during the past two decades.
President Benigno Aquino III, who also chairs the National
Development Authority Board (NEDA) Board, said the board approved on
September 18 the utilization of P 3.93 billion in overseas development
assistance (ODA) for a six-year funding program to improve education for
ARMM children.
Earlier, ARMM Officer-In-Charge Governor Mujiv Hataman formed an
anti-graft monitoring body which unearthed that “millions of pesos” in
public funds were wasted to construction of schools that did not exist
after all, said Assistant Secretary Darwin Rasul of the region’s Office
of Special Concerns (OSC).
This time, the Department of Education in the ARMM has proposed the
new funding program under Basic Education Assistance for Muslim Mindanao
(BEAM-ARMM) of the Australian Agency for International Aid (AusAid),
said ARMM Education Secretary Jamar Kulayan.
Kulayan said Hataman, as member of the NEDA Board himself, defended
the new ODA funding program for the ARMM, the third of four items
approved by the board.
The other items in the NEDA Board’s approval are: Modernization of
the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC), P 5.69 billion; Development
Objective Agreement between the Republic of the Philippines and the
United States of America on Family Health Improved, P 8.94 billion, and
Additional Financing for the World Bank-assisted Land Administration and
Management Project (LAMP 2), P 2.68 billion.
Hataman said the new ODA funding program for the ARMM consisted of
several projects to be implemented in six year-period, from 2012 to
2018.
He said the education support projects cost P 3.93 billion, and under
the NEDA-approved DepEd-ARMM proposal, AusAid would be providing a
total financing assistance program amounting to P 3.57 billion.
“This involves the improvement of basic education in the ARMM,
through engagements of key activities in different areas (covering)
infrastructure, health and sanitation, technical-vocational training,
and access to education,” said a NEDA board statement released by the
office of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan.
The statement said the new Beam AusAid assistance package “aims to
improve management and teaching capacities through training of education
heads and teachers; enhance learning environment through the
construction and repair of classrooms and other school facilities;
improve school health conditions through the construction of toilets and
hand-washing facilities, and training of school health personnel and
teachers; improve livelihood opportunities through technical-vocational
training for out-of-school-children and youth; and improve access to
pre-school and elementary education through construction of community
learning centers for elementary and support for preschool (programs).”
NBM, BPI-ARMM
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