Two BARMM MPs together for peace in Pikit

PIKIT, North Cotabato - Sealed with a handshake.

This was what two members of the parliament (MPs) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr. and Datu Jambo Matalam, did to seal a consensus, reached this week, to intensify their support for peaceful efforts of addressing the nagging security problems here.

Pikit has been hogging the news since 2020 due to the wanton killings in the area and bloody clashes among feuding clans in the municipality, where BARMM has 22 barangays grouped, along with 41 others in nearby towns in Cotabato province, as the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area, or SGA.

The MPs Sinolinding and Matalam, who have relatives in Pikit, also agreed to initiate backchannel dialogues with local stakeholders to help sustain the joint peace initiatives of the BARMM leadership, the Cotabato provincial government, the police, the military and the Pikit LGU.