Cotabato City – Attesting with the autonomous regions’ child
friendly atmosphere, 368 elementary pupils with their teachers toured the ARMM
complex in an educational exposure to regional government office’s routine
operation.
Clad in colourful comfy uniform, Notre Dame-Religious of the
Virgin Mary College of Cotabato, grade school kids trooped the vicinity
parading from one office to another, in an implicit attempt to familiarize with
the regional office premises.
“We’ve been doing this yearly field trip for our school children
to different notable establishments yet, this was our first time to drop by at
the ARMM,” said Janice Roxas, grade school teacher and secretary to the
dean.
The regional complex has been a regular hang out for recreation
and sports work outs for all ages especially in the afternoon and weekends.
Regional Executive Secretary and lawyer Anwar A. Malang, elated
with the startling turn out of children in the ARMM premises and had a souvenir
photo taken with the ‘little visitors’ right in front of the ORG main building.
The autonomous regional government has been keen on programs
promoting education and child rights. This to include, forged partnership
with the Bangladesh’s BRAC alternative learning model (BRAC-ALM) and
Australian’s Basic Education Assistance for Muslim Mindanao (BEAM-ARMM).
Meanwhile, earlier, MMA Act 293 or the Free Birth Registration Act
had been enacted into law, a commitment of the ARMM government to uphold basic
rights of children as to birth registration, free of charge.
