BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY --- The Western Mindanao Command is now planning multi-sectoral activities to complement the upcoming Eid’l Fitr to promote Muslim-Christian solidarity.The new commander of WestMinCom, Lt. Gen.

NORTH COTABATO -- Peace advocates want a third party probe on the deaths of nine members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in a police anti-narcotics operation in Matalam town Saturday.Officials of the MILF, which is engaged in a peace process with Malacañang since the 1990s, said in separate statements Monday that the victims, who belong to their 105thBase Command, were not involved in drug trafficking, contrary to assertions by the police.The North Cotabato provincial police announced on Saturday that the team that raided their lair in Barangay Kilada in Matalam, North Cotabato to sear

COTABATO CITY – The Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) ceasefire committee has filed today a strong protest against
government forces for the death of nine of its fighters in a police operation
in Matalam, North Cotabato last Friday night.

Von Al Haq, speaking for the Bangsamoro Islamic
Armed Forces, the MILF military arm, said complaint for violations of the
GPH-MILF ceasefire agreement have been filed before the International
Monitoring Team and the government coordinating committee on the cessation of
hostilities.

MATALAM, North Cotabato – At least nine members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were massacred in a joint military and police anti-drug operation in Sitio (sub-village) Biao, Kilada village, this municipality, about 11:30 p.m.

COTABATO CITY --- The Court of Appeals has exonerated the incumbent vice mayor of Lamitan City from a graft case that his lawyer said was inappropriate all along.By legal implication, the CA in Cagayan de Oro City declared invalid the six-month suspension by the Ombudsman of Vice Mayor Roderic Furigay from office.The counsel of Furigay, Quirino Esguerra, said Sunday the April 26, 2018 CA ruling also implied that the government has to pay the vice mayor his salary and other fringe benefits due him for the entire duration of the suspension period.

COTABATO CITY --- A bloc of Filipino-Americans on Sunday gave Maguindanao Gov.

LANAO DEL SUR -- Local sectors capped off the first anniversary of the deadly conflict in Marawi City with the launching Thursday of more projects to help residents bounce back from devastation.The May 23-24 anniversary event was also highlighted with the observance of the Marawi Week of Peace, launched six days before.The Marawi Week of Peace culminated on Thursday in a program attended by the chairman of Task Force Bangon Marawi, Eduardo Del Rosario, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Lorenzana, accompanied by Armed Forces chief

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao– National Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana graced the one-day Mindanao Security Summit held at Cotabato City State Polytechnic College (CCSPC) Gymnasium in Cotabato City on May 24, 2018.The summit was attended by the academe and students that carried the theme, Grasping the Role of Academe in War Against Illegal Drugs, Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in the Pursuit of Peace and Development in Southern Philippines.

LANAO DEL SUR --- Local sectors are opposed to any expansion of the shores of Lake Lanao along Marawi City using war debris as filling materials.Experts, among them professors in the government’s premier learning institution in the south, the Mindanao State University, have warned of its devastating effect to the lake’s ecology and capability to accumulate floodwaters from surrounding hinterlands in Lanao del Sur.Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of ARMM.The chairman of Task Force Bangon Marawi, Eduardo Del Rosario, had recently announced that around eight mi

MARAWI CITY - Calling the prayer in time for iftar (breaking of the fast) made Haji Muhaimin emotional.Muhaimin, the 49-year old imam (prayer leader) in Sagonsongan resettlement site's local mosque, expressed his gratitude to the Almighty for sparing his life in last year's war in Marawi City. Marami ang namatay sa amin. Nagpapasalamat ako sa Allah na nabigyan ako ng isa pang buhay. Naging parang panata ko na ang maging bilal, Muhaimin said He said that many of his relatives died in crossfire.For couple Gulam and Wanisa Dia, the siege robbed them of a lifetime's worth of memories.