BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

ISABELA CITY --- Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman and provincial administrator Hadji Manny Muarip led this week the symbolic entry to office of newly-appointed career service employees under the office of the governor.

They were sworn to office by the governor and were lectured on the intricacies of public service by Muarip as part of the effort for them to become productive public servants in the provincial government.

BASILAN --- House Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman convened Thursday the barangay captains in Isabela City and presided over an urgent dialogue with the management of the Isabela Water District, or ISAWAD, on shortages of water supply for local communities.

Residents of Isabela City in the island province of Basilan have been ranting for weeks now on the lack of water flowing out of their taps. They have been venting their ire on ISAWAD via the social media.

BASILAN --- Efforts of the Isabela City local government unit to restore normalcy in its territory, affected by governance woes and armed conflicts in towns around for decades, got a boost the other day.

The National Housing Authority has committed a P70 million resettlement support for Isabela City in Basilan to complement the efforts of both first-termers Mayor Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman and Vice Mayor Kifli Salliman for the city to bounce back from longtime underdevelopment.

COTABATO CITY --- The creation last year of the Bangsamoro government was unlikely if Malacañang was under a president not from the south, regional officials said.

Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, appointed chief minister of the now 11-month Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Tuesday they are grateful to President Rodrigo Duterte for having shepherded the Bangsamoro Organic Law, or Republic Act 11054, the charter of BARMM.

COTABATO CITY -- The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has sponsored a free tutorial to help volunteer teachers serving the regional government to pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).

Minister Mohagher Iqbal of the Ministry of Basic and Higher Technical Education and lawyer Lanang Ali Jr., BARMM member of parliament, led the opening program for the LET review at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center here Friday.

MAGUINDANAO --- The police arrested Thursday another suspect in the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre and shot his companion dead for trying to interfere in the operation.

Gambayan Kasim, alias Lori Arip, is now in the custody of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

He voluntarily yielded when PRO-BAR agents barged into his house in Barangay Timbangan in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao, but a companion named Edsrail Guiomla pulled out a .45 caliber pistol and opened fire, provoking a brief gunfight that resulted in his death.

Basilan's BARMM meet contingent has Salliman's support

BASILAN --- The delegates of Basilan to the Bangsamoro regional athletic meet next week in Upi, Maguindanao got a P1.4 million grant for their expenses in joining the event.

The office of Gov. Jim Salliman on Thursday released separate checks amounting to P1 million and P400,000 to the superintendents of the Basilan and Lamitan City schools, respectively, to help fill for the financial requisites of both contingents.

COTABATO CITY  – A member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) today expressed confidence the region is in good hands with Chief Minister Murad Balawag Ebrahim doubly working to convince investors to come in.

Member of Parliament Princess Bai Maleiha B. Candao, in a statement, cited Ebrahim’s recent foreign trip where he put the BARMM into the investors’ map of Turkey and convinced to pour in capital in the young regional government in southern Philippines.

COTABATO CITY --- The December 11 to 16 dialogues between Bangsamoro Chief Minister Hadji Ahod Ebrahim and Turkish officials in Ankara, Turkey were not unconstitutional, a senior regional official said Saturday.

Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, local government minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the engagements were, in fact, held in the presence of representatives from the Philippine diplomatic corps assigned in Turkey.

LANAO DEL SUR --- Gunmen killed an acting municipal police chief and a civilian companion in an ambush at dusk Monday in Barangay Bandaraingud in Pagayawan town in this province.

Master Sergeant Amen Lucman Macalangan and Ramel Pangcatan died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

Macalangan was officer-in-charge of the Binidayan municipal police.

They were attacked while en route to the town proper of Binidayan from the Lanao del Sur provincial police office in Marawi City.