BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Government has dispatched more packages of personal protective equipment (PPE), medicines and other medical supplies, this time, to government-designated hospitals in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

On Thursday, a navy boat sailed off north-westward from the Polloc Freeport in Maguindanao to transport aid supplies to the island provinces, said lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, head of the Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidents (READi) unit of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

COTABATO CITY --- Mayor Marshall Sinsuat of Datu Blah Sinsuat, Maguindanao said Friday he is thankful to their municipal police force and the Army’s 6^th Infantry Battalion for continuously supporting the COVID-19 control efforts of their local government unit.

The seaside municipality of Datu Blah Sinsuat, most known as DBS, is in the west coast of Maguindanao. It is touted as the “fishing capital” of the province.

COTABATO CITY - Moro frontline workers traveled 24 hours on naval boat to bring food to residents of faraway Mapun, an island municipality off Sulu Sea.  

Mapun, which is closer to Sabah, Malaysia than it is to Bongao, capital of Tawi-Tawi (its mother province) is rarely reached by relief operations — the town being not prone to natural disasters and conflict.

COTABATO CITY - The Ministry of Trade, Investments and Tourism’s (MTIT-BARMM) bureau of trade and industry formed a special price monitoring team to closely monitor the prices of all basic goods and other essential medical supplies in the Bangsamoro region amidst the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

COTABATO CITY --- The COVID-19 pandemic did not deter Gov. Jim Salliman from replacing with an all weather bridge a dangerous footbridge connecting Pansul Basih area to Barangay Tumahubong in Sumisip, Basilan.

The old footbridge was the only markedly critical connection of farmers and elementary pupils and high school students to markets and schools, respectively, in barangays nearby for so long, long before Salliman got to the helm of the Basilan provincial government.

COTABATO CITY ---- Army camps under the 6^th Infantry Division have tight quarantine regulations, gates guarded by teams armed with disinfection equipment to keep soldiers safe from COVID-19.

The health of soldiers under different 6^th ID units guarding on shifts the major quarantine sentries on stretches of highways in central Mindanao are also being monitored by military medics.

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of 6^th ID, said Friday dependents of soldiers residing in far areas should not worry about their safety from COVID-19.

COTABATO CITY – This time it came from their own investment and pockets and not from the local emergency funds.

Maguindanao towns in second district of the province since yesterday have been busy receiving and delivering truckloads of farm products, tons of Tilapia and dressed chicken to indigent residents affected by the national health emergency.

COTABATO CITY  – The Office of lawyer Lanang T. Ali Jr., Majority Floor Leader of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament in cooperation with the League of the Bangsamoro Organizations (LBO) has organized the ‘Kadtag Bangsamoro,’ a relief assistance program that aims to support the “most vulnerable families affected by the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.”

COTABATO CITY  - When the Bangsamoro Organic Law was ratified, anticipation poured in with the new bureaucracy in place. How will the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) address some of the most pressing issues in the region? What difference does it have compared to the defunct ARMM? Will it truly address the shared desires of the Bangsamoro?