BARMM's newly-built COVID-19 isolation facility launched
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 15:30 PM Thu May 28, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
The Bangsamoro region’s newly-built COVID-19 isolation facility in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
COTABATO CITY --- Officials inaugurated Thursday the P21 million 100-bed COVID-19 isolation building constructed in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao by the Bangsamoro regional government.
The facility is located inside the compound of the Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital in Barangay Pinaring in Sultan Kudarat, about 10 kilometers north of the capitol here of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The project was bankrolled by the office of BARMM’s chief minister, Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, constructed by the Bangsamoro region’s Ministry of Public Works.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM’s local government minister, said Thursday the facility was constructed to boost the anti-coronavirus containment campaign of the Bangsamoro regional government.
“The project was accomplished fast. We are thankful to all the people behind the construction of the facility,” said Sinarimbo, BARMM’s spokesman.
The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government has been encouraging local government units in the Bangsamoro region to put up COVID-19 isolation facilities where constituents suspected of having been infected with coronavirus can be treated.
The Bangsamoro region covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Regional Police Office-BARMM separately appreciated Thursday the setting up of 18 different COVID-isolation facilities by municipal, city and provincial officials in Basilan.
Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of WestMinCom said Thursday reports reaching him stated that two of the 18 facilities are in Isabela City and another in Lamitan City, the capital of Basilan.
He said local officials have even set-up two COVID-19 isolation facilities in Tabuan Lasa, the remotest island municipality in Basilan.
Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu, police director for the Bangsamoro region, said he has instructed the Basilan provincial police to extend whatever technical and manpower support are needed to ensure the smooth operation of all COVID-19 isolation facilities in Basilan.
“Our personnel in all provinces of BARMM are supporting the anti-COVID-19 efforts of local government units as a bounden duty, in the context of `heal as one’ principle,” Abu said.
Sobejana and Abu separately lauded the provincial government of Basilan and all mayors in the province for having worked together in putting up 18 COVID-19 isolation facilities in the province that has 11 towns and two cities.