BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

LANAO DEL SUR --- Many residents of Marawi City and their leaders remembered May 23, 2017 as the day militants stepped on their maratabat as a community never conquered by invaders in the past.The term maratabat means pride and honor in the local dialect, akin to Maranao family and community stature and valued as next to their religion, Islam.Some leaders blame disunity among them, their datus and sultans as the factor that emboldened the Dawlah Islamiya, most known as the Maute terror group, to embark on a religious adventurism that would result in the deaths of about a thousand, among t

COTABATO CITY -- Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, Mindanao’s first-ever Roman Catholic cardinal, has expressed support to the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) version of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), describing it as the way to a just and lasting peace in Mindanao.In a statement released Monday to local media outlets for the Senate Consultative Committee, Quevedo said his position on the BBL is the result of his long years of study of Muslim history in the country.

COTABATO CITY --- Agents arrested on Saturday night in Jolo, Sulu a senior member of the Islamic State-inspired Abu Sayyaf wanted for kidnapping and other heinous offenses.Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Sunday Hashim Abtain, most known in Sulu province as Abu Imam, is now detained, awaiting prosecution.Mijares said police units in Sulu were assisted by the Police Regional Office-9 in Zamboanga City in the operation that led to the arrest of Abtain.Abtain reportedly enjoyed the protection of certain powerful polit

MAGUINDANAO --- The government started building Friday an 8.2 kilometer trading route connecting two historic, centuries-old trading enclaves of non-Moro ethnic Tedurays in Upi town.The road will link Blensong, a hinterland agricultural area home to Teduray families, and Nuro, the center of Upi town in the first district of Maguindanao.Upi Mayor Ramon Piang and Gov.

LANAO DEL SUR - Stakeholders are grateful to Japan for committing 2 billion Yen for the rehabilitation of the conflict-torn Marawi City.Japan committed the amount, about US$18 million, in a cooperation agreement signed May 15 by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Yoshio Wada, representative to the Philippines of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, most known as JICA.JICA is a major benefactor of the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and has been helping bankroll high-ticket socio-economic and infrastructure projects in the Autonomous

MAGUINDANAO --- Two Maguindanaon clans that figured in gunfights following the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections reconciled Wednesday.The leaders of the feuding groups, Salaban Mindalagat and Safrola Buday, promised to disengage their armed relatives and supporters who figured in a spate of encounters immediately after the May 14 polls.The reelectionist Mindalagat, chairman of Barangay Dungguan in Datu Montawal town in the second district of Maguindanao, lost to Buday in Monday’s election.They have sworn to co-exist again as relatives and neighbors through the intercession

COTABATO CITY --- Local clerics declared May 17 as first day of Ramadhan after failing to see the crescent moon on Tuesday night that would have signaled its start on Wednesday.The Ramadhan, a holy month in Islam where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one lunar cycle as a religious obligation and reparation for wrongdoings, would have started Wednesday had they spotted the moon the night before.The Darul Iftah (House of Opinions) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao announced before midnight Tuesday that the Ramadhan shall commence on Thursday.The group, comprised of moderate preac

DATU ODIN
SINSUAT, Maguindanao – Responding to the Army’s calls for local
government officials to help in the military’s campaign against loose firearms,
officials of Datu Odin Sinsuat (DOS), Maguindanao collected guns from civilians
and turned them over to the military Saturday.

COTABATO CITY – Twenty-four (24) miniature mosques are on display here as the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) officially launched on Friday, May 11, an exhibit of ‘Mosques Around the World’.The exhibit is a competition event with participation from the region’s different offices and agencies. Participants constructed three-dimensional miniature replicas of renowned mosques from different parts of the world.

MAGUINDANAO --- Officials forged on Thursday an election security compact focused on measures meant to ensure orderly elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on May 14.The three-page interim security plan was signed by Lt. Gen.