BARMM lawmakers bat for more cell sites in Cotabato
COTABATO CITY — Officials are working on encouraging telecommunications companies or telcos to build more transmission facilities in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in Cotabato province to hasten residents’ connectivity to government services and trading centers.
To get things moving, Bangsamoro parliament members — lawyers Paisalin P. Tago and Suharto M. Ambolodto, and physician-ophthalmologist Kadil M. Sinolinding, Jr. — are discussing the co-authorship of a resolution urging state and private telecommunication providers to install cell sites in the 63 barangays.
“It is a pro-peace, pro-development concern. We don’t have any problem pooling our voices together to request telecommunication firms to put up more of such facilities in these 63 barangays,” said Mr. Ambolodto.
Mr. Sinolinding also stressed the need for cell sites to enhance health services, emergency response operations, and attract external investors for viable agricultural projects.
For his part, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Labor Minister Muslimin G. Sema, who also chairs the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), affirmed their readiness to assist security forces in safeguarding cell sites in the villages where their camps are located.
Mr. Sinolinding cited the importance of telecommunications in boosting collaboration among local government units, police, and military in maintaining peace in the Special Geographic Area (SGA) comprising the scattered barangays, recognized as “peace zones” by the national government. — John Felix M. Unson