BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY — Seventy-three newly-appointed community midwives from Maguindanao took their oath on Tuesday, May 19, at the Ministry of Health (MOH-BARMM) Training Center, in Cotabato City.

Minister of Health Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan led the oath-taking ceremony of the new set of midwifery personnel, including 10 others coming from regional offices.

"One of our goals is to equip our Barangay Health Stations with complete facilities, each of which will be assigned a midwife," Dipatuan said.

COTABATO CITY - Lack of resources marred the distribution of the Special Amelioration Program (SAP) funds to beneficiaries in some parts of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), even fanning early political tirades on incumbent local officials.

Mayor Victor Samama of Datu Piang, Maguindanao said fake accounts on social media were made a virtual platform by critics to draw early political mudslinging, accusing local officials of shortchanging their people of the SAP funds.

COTABATO CITY --- Clerics have cautioned Muslims against performing the field Eid’l Fit’r prayers following the culmination of Ramadhan to protect them from coronavirus disease.

The Islamic Ramadhan fasting season, which started April 24, is expected to end within four or five days from now, depending on the sighting of the new moon to mark the start of Shawal, the 10^th month in the lunar-based Hijrah calendar.

COTABATO CITY - FORTY-one programs were launched Thursday by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MILG-BARMM).

Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, interior and local government minister, punched the key to ceremonial opening of e-access to the MILG-BARMM programs via the website https://mlg.bangsamoro.gov.ph/ in a simple ceremony at the MILG office, this city.

MARAWI CITY — Speaker Ali Pangalian M. Balindong turned over today, May 14 some 3,000 KN95 masks to the frontliners of Amai Pakpak Medical Center (APMC) to aid their ongoing efforts against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The masks were received by Medical Center Chief II Dr. Shalimar Sani Rakiin together with Department of OB-Gyn Medical Specialist Dr. Rasnaifah Batugan Pundato and Public Health Unit Head Dr. Abdulnasser Maca-alin.

COTABATO CITY — Bangsamoro Government's efforts to fight Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) double as its task force welcomes new members during the Bangsamoro Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) meeting on Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

The new members of Bangsamoro IATF are: Police Regional Office Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BARMM), Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom), Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)-Cotabato City, and Office of the Civil Defense (OCD)-BARMM.

COTABATO CITY  - Schools in the Bangsamoro region may yet shift to online or distance learning mode, even as education officials brace for the “new normal” amid the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has called for and hosted meetings with education officials on the conduct of survey for the region’s Learning Continuity Plan (LCP).

COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro region—Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Cotabato City and 63 barangays in North Cotabato—shall no longer be under Community Quarantine (CQ) beginning May 16, 2020, following the issuance of National Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Covid-19 Resolution No. 35 on Tuesday, May 11, 2020.

COTABATO CITY --- The Department of Transportation has awarded the Lamitan City Port in Basilan an international security compliance certificate allowing accommodation of transnational vessels.

Lamitan City is the capital of the island Basilan province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Garry Abas, BARMM’s regional ports manager, said Tuesday the transportation department’s Office for Transportation Security granted on April 24 the port of Lamitan City an International Code for the Security of Ships and Port Facilities Certificate.

COTABATO CITY --- The Department of Science and Technology has five COVID-19 specimen collection booths for central Mindanao but shipment from Metro Manila down south is a problem. 

Officials at the helm of various anti-coronavirus frontline groups in Region 12 and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Saturday the specimen collection booths, or SCBs, are best transported direct from Metro Manila to the Maguindanao Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat town via a C-130 military aircraft.