BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY -- The mayor here urged the Commission on Elections to check on the distribution by a group to voters of identification cards bearing data allegedly obtained from Comelec.Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi showed copies of the questionable ID cards to reporters during an informal press briefing Thursday.She said the ID cards seemingly produced by the United Bangsamoro Movement, or UBM, were turned over by individuals who want the issue investigated immediately.The Comelec reportedly accredited the UBM as one of several watch groups for the plebiscite for the ratification of the Bangs

MAGUINDANAO --- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is elated with how non-Muslims are campaigning for an electoral mandate for the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the MILF’s top leader said.The MILF’s figurehead, Hadji Murad Ebrahim, said Tuesday among the staunch endorses of the BOL is Mindanao Catholic leader Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, who has persistently been asserting that it will correct the historical injustice Moro people are ranting about.Ebrahim said on Tuesday afternoon, while in Buluan town, that the overt support of Quevedo, Lamitan City Mayor Rose Furigay and her spouse, Vice Mayor Ro

COTABATO CITY -- Thousands of vehicles on Sunday motored through two cities and three provinces in a 16-hour motorcade meant to highlight public support for the Bangsamoro Organic Law.The Commission on Elections will administer on January 21 a plebiscite that would seal the fate of the BOL, or the Republic Act 11054, a product of 22 years of talks between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.The caravan for peace, organized by various blocs helping push the peace process between the government and the MILF forward, was launched here after dawn Sunday.The motorcade crossed thro

MAGUINDANAO -- The figurehead of the Moro Islamic Liberation visited Sunday the Army’s Camp Gonzalo Siongco in Maguindanao, his first since the MILF came to fore in 1980.Units of 6thID and MILF forces figured in hundreds of bloody encounters since in a showdown that waned only when the group’s peace process with Malacañang gained headway in recent years with the help of Malaysia as a third party facilitator.Hadji Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF’s central committee, entered Camp Siongco at past 10:00 a.m. Sunday on invitation of 6thID’s commander, the battle-scarred Major Gen.

PAGLAT, Maguindanao-- Combined elements of the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police foiled the attempt to bomb urban centers in Sultan Kudarat after seizing improvised bombs and triggering devices in Damakling village here at around 5and00am on Saturday (January 12). Lt. Col. Harold M Cabunoc, the Commanding Officer of the 33rd Infantry (Makabayan) Battalion, said that his unit orchestrated the counter-terrorist operations after learning about the presence of bombs in a remote village of Pagalad here.

COTABATO CITY -- Muslims and Christians on Friday together prayed for peace amid the tension between quarters bitterly divided by irreconcilable stances on the Bangsamoro Organic Law.Representatives from the local Islamic and Christian communities prayed one after another during the event, organized to allay worsening security apprehensions triggered by the glaring animosity between groups that are either for, or against the BOL, also known as the Republic Act 11054.Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi has promised during the ecumenical prayer rally to fully flex her authority to prote

SULTAN SA BARONGIS,
Maguindanao -- The Army here announced today that 41 members of the illegal
drug syndicate indirectly supporting ISIS-linked Moro rebels have voluntarily surrendered
to government authorities.

The surrender
transpired at the village public school Friday morning.

The surrenderors
were led by known drug ring leaders

MAGUINDANAO --- The raiding team that searched for narcotics found only four assault rifles and a grenade in the house of Vice Mayor Otto Montawal of Montawal town in this province.The Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao announced on Friday that the 5.56 M16 assault rifles and fragmentation grenade recovered before dawn Thursday in the vice mayor’s residence in Barangay Talapas, Montawalshall be used as evidence in prosecuting him for illegal possession of firearms and explosive.The PRO-ARMM said the raiding team did not find any methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu)

MAGUINDANAO -- Two gunmen were wounded in a gunfight with a police team that raided Thursday the house of the vice mayor of Montawal town to search for drugs.Reports from the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao indicated that the two men were bodyguards of Vice Mayor Otto Montawal.The police personnel who carried out the search operation were forced to shoot the two men when they opened fire, sparking a shootout.The vice mayor was said have escaped just as the raiding team arrived at his residential compound in Barangay Talapas in Montawal town in the second district

MAGUINDANAO – Authorities foiled Wednesday an attempt to bomb the venue of a medical mission of Gov.