BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY – Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has asked the region’s Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH-ARMM) district engineering offices to fast-track pending infrastructure projects in their respective areas. Ang goal ay ma-check ang status ng projects para malaman kung ano yung maa-accomplish bago matapos ang taon, said Gov. Hataman during an event dubbed Governor’s Initiative for Systems Assessment held on Tuesday, July 31, in Cotabato City. It’s very important to hasten the implementation of our projects.

MAGUINDANAO ---- Four of the 36 towns in Maguindanao province are now totally drug free, officials confirmed during a security conference Tuesday.Representatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao announced during the session of the provincial peace and order council (PPOC) that all four towns of Pandag, Shariff Aguak, Paglat and Kabuntalan had been cleared of illegal drug traffickers and dependents.PDEA-ARMM officials said the feat was achieved with the help of local officials, the provincial police, the Army’s 6thInfantry Division and the offi

BASILAN - Ninety more marginalized families, some related to hardcore members of the Abu Sayyaf, got food aidfrom a pro-poor program addressing neglect and poverty in far-flung barrios.The activity early this week of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowermentprogram in Barangays Calut and Mahawid in Tuburan, Basilan was led by the regional and provincial officials.Also present in the food distribution event besides ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and senior regional officials were Basilan Gov.

MAGUINDANAO - Thousands joined the consultative assembly on the Bangsamoro Organic Law on Sunday in the main enclave of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in central Mindanao.The MILF organized the assembly in Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao for its members and supporters to discuss the intricacies of the law, premised on their two compacts with the government - the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.President Rodrigo Duterte signed last week the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which will pave the way for the replace

COTABATO CITY --- The Globe Telecom Incorporated and the education department launched here Thursday a partnership on internet learning interventions to address illiteracy in southern provinces.Globe’s Maria Yolanda Crisanto and lawyer Rasol Mitmug, Jr., regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, led the symbolic launching of the Global Filipino Schools (GFS) Program at the ARMM capitol here on Thursday morning.Crisanto is Globe’s senior vice president for communications.The kickoff rite for the joint venture was held along with the day-long food festival in

COTABATO CITY -- The social welfare department started releasing Friday cash grants to victims of the conflagration in Jolo, Sulu on Tuesday that razed hundreds of houses.In a statement, the regional social welfare department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said 1,615 fire victims will receive assistance from the government’s Unconditional Cash Transfer under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.The Department of Social Welfare and Development-ARMM said the evacuees from Jolo’s fire-stricken Barangays Busbus and Walled City shall receive a total of P16,484,400 worth of cash a

MANILA– Malacañang on Thursday confirmed that President Rodrigo Duterte finally signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL). This is to announce that the President has just signed the BOL into law, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a text message to Palace reporters.During the ‘69th Araw ng Ipil’ celebration in Zambaonga, Sibugay, Duterte said the BBL has been signed , referring to Bangsamoro Basic Law which has been renamed into BOL.

MAGUINDANAO ---- Stakeholders were elated with the launching on Wednesday of a P46.1 million engineering office in Maguindanao, the first since the creation of the province in 1974.The facility, to rise on a roadside lot in the center of Buluan, the new capital of Maguindanao, will function as main operation base of the Second District Engineering Office in the province under Engineer James Mlok.Mlok and Maguindanao Gov.

COTABATO CITY ---- A pro-poor government program is building 1,538 core shelters for impoverished families in five southern provinces, among them now reforming former Abu Sayyaf militants.Documents from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment (ARMM-BRIDGE) programindicated that the houses are being built with the help of the district engineering offices in the five provinces.The core shelter thrust is part of the four amenities dubbed apat na dapat, or food, clean water, housing and electricity, for ARMM’s poor villager

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities placed at P35 million the initial estimate of properties razed by a five-hour conflagration Tuesday in Jolo town in Sulu that dislocated 5,127 families.The Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao reported on Wednesday that the fire that hit the adjoining Barangays Walled City and Busbus in Jolo destroyed no fewer than 2,000 houses built so close to each other on a land near the town center.Myrna Jocelyn Henry, information officer of the relief contingent most known in the autonomous region as HEART, said A