[ Manila Bulletin Online ] June 4, 2008
By ALI G. MACABALANG
MARAWI CITY — Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal "Bombit" Alonto-Adiong Jr. has launched what is just the initial stage of a massive construction of barangay hall buildings in his province’s 1,162 villages where officials hold offices in their residences for lack of such edifices.
Adiong, a civil engineer by profession, staged the launching ceremony at his office in the provincial capitol complex here last week.
The occasion had drawn a big attendance of provincial, municipal and village officials, who had long wanted to end the virtual absence of barangay governments in Lanao del Sur.
"This (barangay hall building construction program) would finally bring dignity in our village governance. We sometimes hold office in the barangay chairman’s residence, although in most cases we meet at our depository bank only when our IRA (internal revenue allotment) is being released," a source said in vernacular.
The source, who asked not to be named, is an official of a village, which Gov. Adiong included in the list of village-recipients of the 40 initial barangay hall buildings his office has started constructing last week and hoped to finish in two months.
The project – on its planned scale – is a pioneering endeavor that reveals the importance that the governor here is giving to effective and efficient barangay governance, considering its impact to the province’s political and economic goals in general.
It also gives due recognition to the role of barangay officials in their respective communities, thus making them more respectable as leaders of the community.
Adiong tasked provincial assistant engineers Rashdi Adiong and Farouk Balindong to closely supervise the program in the 1st and 2nd Congressional districts, respectively.
In an interview, provincial information officer Nasser Ganda said the program’s fund is derived from the IRA of the provincial government.
Ganda did not give exact figure on the cost of each edifice, assuring though that the building will be "very decent."
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