New schools built by US, Filipino soldiers await Sulu kids

JOLO, SULU—New school buildings await pupils of some villages of Talipao and Panglima Estino towns when they go back to school in June, while residents of another Talipao village have been given a new health clinic.
Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of the military-led Task Force Comet, said all the projects were inaugurated on Thursday.

“These are all military-initiated development projects funded by the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP),” Sabban said Tuesday, referring to the body supervising the deployment of US troops here and in other parts of Mindanao.
He said US soldiers also helped construct the school buildings in barangays Bandang and Mauboh in Talipao, and Punay in Panglima Estino.

They also built the health clinic in Barangay Bilaan in Talipao, Sabban said.

The soldiers have been involved in various engineering works in Sulu under the humanitarian component of the US global war on terror.

“The military recognizes the importance of education and well-being in the attainment of its peace objective,” Sabban said.

He said the military was hoping that “we would be able to help in addressing the problem [of lack of school buildings] here in Sulu.”

“Investing in education is the key to peace and development, which is a long term solution,” Sabban added.

Maj. Eric Walker, JSOTFP commander, said they were ready to help bring projects to Sulu villages to improve the lives of the people.

US Help

Gov. Abdusakur Tan said the projects being built through the help of the US government have really helped the provincial government in delivering basic services to the people of Sulu.

He said that because people were seeing many projects nowadays, “peace and order in Sulu is getting better every day.”

Sulu is identified as one of the lairs of the Abu Sayyaf, which is being linked with the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiya.

Both the government and the military have acknowledged that poverty had contributed to the sympathy gained by the Abu Sayyaf from the locals. (Ed General, INQ.net)