BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY - The Bangsamoro Parliament's Social Services and Development Committee approved BTA Bill No. 44, or the Bangsamoro Mujahideen Under Special Circumstance Act of 2024, on Friday, January 12, following its thorough review of the 15-section bill.

COTABATO CITY - A team from the office of a physician in the 80-member Bangsamoro parliament and volunteers from a non-profit medical foundation treated 89 marginalized eye patients during an outreach mission in Barangay Ulandang in Midsayap, North Cotabato on Tuesday.

Barangay Ulandang is one of 13 barangays in Midsayap that are under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao but is inside a municipality of Cotabato province inside the territory of Administrative Region 12.

BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi – A total of 34 families from this town, who were displaced during the New Year’s Eve fire, received food packages, medical aid, and other emergency assistance from the Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) on January 4.
 
The fire, which occurred at around 3pm on Dec. 31, 2023 in Barangay Poblacion, resulted in damage to 18 households, one (1) government office, and one (1) commercial warehouse. Immediate assistance was promptly extended to the victims on January 1.
 

COTABATO CITY - Members of the Sinsuat clan here and in Maguindanao del Norte, made estranged by hostile politics, are optimistic they can reunite still despite Tuesday’s gunfight that marred their reconciliation dialogue here that left a policeman dead.

The Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the Cotabato City Police Office are keen on prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law the 10 individuals implicated in the atrocity, four of them arrested at the scene, six more captured one after another in pursuit operations on the same day.

COTABATO CITY - Sultan Abdulaziz Guiwan "Datu Salem" Mastura Kudarat V died early Friday. He was 75.

The sultan’s younger brother Prince Datu Mama Mastura said Sultan Datu Salem, who was born on December 5, 1948, in Barangay Salaman, Lebak, Sultan Kudarat (formerly North Cotabato) died early Friday of a lingering pulmonary disorder he had been long medically diagnosed with.

Last November, Sultan Salem took part in an international online conference hosted the Care for Humanity calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Palestine.

MANILA – The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has arrested one of the suspects in the ambush of Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr.

In a statement on Tuesday, CIDG chief Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat said Ameno Amatonding, 52, was arrested in Barangay Aguisan, Himamaylan, Negros Occidental on Dec. 30, 2023 by agents of the CIDG Capiz.

Amatonding has standing arrest warrants for 19 counts of attempted murder, four counts of murder, and three counts of frustrated murder issued by the Marawi City, Lanao del Sur Regional Trial Court Branch 8.

CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao Norte - In response to reports of fugitives fleeing, elements of Turtle Islands MPS, along with personnel from 12MC PN(M) and PNP MG 1ST SOU, conducted a Seaborne Patrol, which resulted in the capture of four (4) fugitives from Sabah, Malaysia on December 30, 2023 at Langaan Island, Turtle Islands Municipality, Tawi-Tawi.

MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has institutionalized the recovery, reconstruction, and rehabilitation efforts in Marawi City, and streamlined the functions of concerned agencies to hasten the implementation of programs in the city and other affected areas.

SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao Norte - Under the bristling heat of the noonday sun, 294 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) stood in rapt attention as a drum and bugle band played in the background. 

Clad in full camouflage uniform, a great sense of pride was written on the faces of the sunburnt men and women. They had reason to be jubilant, as they took their oath on Thursday, December 28, as regular members of the Philippine National Police (PNP). 

PBBM’s commitment to Bangsamoro peace process

MANILA – Some 294 new police recruits, who were former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), took their oath as members of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) on Thursday at Camp SK Pendatun, Parang, Maguindanao del Norte.

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos welcomed to the country’s police force the new recruits composed of 255 men and 39 women under the MILF and MNLF recruitment program.