ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Uy Ampatuan has donated a brand-new ambulance to the Cotabato City government in what he touted as a "recognition of the city‘s significance as the provisional seat of the regional governance."

"We’d like to show our gratitude to the people and city government of Cotabato for warmly serving as host to the autonomous regional government since its inception," Ampatuan said.

The ambulance, a Nissan Urban Shuttle, 2008 model, is one of nine brand-new units acquired by the Ampatuan administration to boost health services in ARMM.

The first eight units were given earlier to Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi, all ARMM component areas.

Earlier, the National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) stated in its 2006 report that the 49.4 percent poverty incidence in ARMM in 2003 rose to 55.3 percent in 2006, a rate which surpassed the poverty levels in Caraga Region and Region IV which are at 45.5 percent and 43.7 percent, respectively.

But officials of the Ampatuan administration were unfazed by the report.

They said that the present leadership assumed office on Oct. 1, 2005 and that its "unprecedented accomplishments" in various development dimensions were not covered in the 2006 NSCB report.

During the simple turnover rite at the People’s Palace here, ARMM Executive Secretary Oscar Sampulna said the ambulance would help enhance health services in the city.

Improving local health services is among the top priorities of the incumbent ARMM leadership, said Sampulna, who represented Governor Ampatuan at the rites.

"The Autonomous Government would like to contribute to the development" of this city, being its provisional capital, Sampulna said.