BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY --- Abu Sayyaf gunmen set free before dawn Tuesday a Tausug public school teacher snatched in Sulu island province over the weekend.Lawyer Rasol Mitmug,Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Education-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said at noontime Tuesday that high school teacher Shariff Benjamin Asamli Ubaid is now back to his family after about three days of captivity.

COTABATO CITY – The leadership of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is suggesting that a fraction of the regional government's budget for 2019 be realigned for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) plebiscite scheduled on January next year in case funding for the referendum does not come on time.

COTABATO CITY --- The transition bloc to oversee the switch from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to the Bangsamoro entity will have P32 billion worth of operating funds to start with in 2019.Lawyer Laisa Masuhud-Alamia, executive secretary of ARMM, said Saturday the House of Representatives approved last Thursday without interpellation the region’s proposed P32 billion 2019 budget.

COTABATO CITY --- Visibility of state forces have been heightened in vulnerable areas following the filing of charges against Islamic militants implicated in recent bomb attacks in central Mindanao.Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Friday their units in Maguindanao province have enlisted the help of barangay leaders in preventing possible attacks by groups sympathetic to the suspects. We are not taking chances.

QUEZON CITY – The P32-billion budget proposed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for fiscal year 2019 was approved without any interpellation at the House of Representatives plenary on Thursday, September 20. We’re very happy that the ARMM-proposed budget for 2019 was approved immediately.

COTABATO CITY --- Hundreds of mainstream Islamic theologians have joined the bandwagon of southerners campaigning for a yes vote during the January 21 plebiscite for the Bangsamoro Organic Law.The figurehead of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Hadji Murad Ebrahim, said Thursday he is thankful to Muslim preachers from across Mindanao who manifested their support to the implementation of the BOL during an assembly in Cotabato City last Tuesday.He said they also appreciate the support to the BOL of indigenous Lumad and Christian sectors in Mindanao, among them priests led by Cardinal Orlan

LANAO DEL SUR --- Agents seized from a provincial board member and a Marawi City councilor P3.4 million worth of shabu in a raid in Iligan City Tuesday.Hussein Magandia and Amienquailid Dimal, incumbent member of the Lanao del Sur Sangguniang Panlalawigan and councilor in Marawi City, respectively, are now in the custody of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, to be prosecuted for violation of Republic Act 9165.The RA 9165, which outlawed possession or sale of narcotics and other regulated substances, is also known as the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act.Senior PDEA officials in Regions 10

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities are optimistic the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will censure its members who allegedly attacked on Saturday a village at the border of the city and Sultan Kudarat town, dislocating some 300 families.

LANAO DEL SUR --- Presidential daughter Sara Duterte distributed on Sunday relief supplies and multi-vitamins to conflict-stricken residents of Marawi City.Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr.

NORTH COTABATO --- Authorities are still trying to establish who the culprits were in Sunday's bomb attacks in General Santos City and in Midsayap, North Cotabato.Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the 6th Infantry Division said their intelligence units are now helping the Police Regional Office-12 identify the bombers.