BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

MAGUINDANAO --- Four members of an Islamic State-inspired group have reportedly been executed after their leader discovered that their mobile phones contained numbers of contacts with non-Muslim names.Lt. Col. Gerry Besana, spokesman of the anti-terror, Army-led Task Force Central, confirmed on Thursday having received reports from barangay folk about the execution of followers of Esmael Abdulmalik on suspicions they provided the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front tactical information that led to the MILF’s takeover of their camp on Wednesday.

MAGUINDANAO ---- Investigators are still trying to identify the abductors of a councilor in Jolo town in Sulu who was snatched Wednesday in a hostile territory in the island province.Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, director of the Regional Police Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said on Thursday that investigators are now working with military intelligence units in locating the victim, Ezeddin Tan.He is a nephew Sulu Gov.

NORTH COTABATO --- Authorities have foiled an attempt to bomb selected targets in central Mindanao with the arrest on Monday of a militant Moro commander plotting to perpetrate the attacks.Muslimin Ladtugan, most known as Commander Mus in the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, is now in the joint custody of the police and the military, according to local officials.He was cornered at his hideout in Barangay Nabalawag in Midsayap, North Cotabato at past 8and00 a.m.

MAGUINDANAO --- The military on Friday bombarded militants who were about to attack soldiers in Guindulungan town to avenge the deaths of companions in clashes with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.Four members of the Islamic State-inspired Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, identified only as Dimas, Sanggutin, Usop, and Yasser, were confirmed injured in the artillery barrage, according to local officials.Captain Arvin Encinas, public affairs officer of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said on Saturday that the preemptive artillery strike was launched after military units in Guindulungan

Mindanaoans were among the13-person delegation of the Philippine Universal Periodic Review Watch that held a protest rally at the United Nations Tuesday as a show of support to the protest rally in Metro Manila againstrising tyranny in the Philippines and to seek the support of UN member states and non-government organizations who are participating in the final session for the 2017 UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the Philippines.The protest rally at the famous Broken Chair near Palais de Nations, the venue for the 36th Session, will be participated in by different Fili

LANAO DEL SUR --- Officials on Thursday branded as propaganda stunt the emergence this week of a band of gunmen demanding an end to hostilities in Marawi City.The gunmen, who looked like bandits in their covered faces, introduced their group as the Meranaw Victims Movement on camera in an apparently scripted gathering filmed for circulation via social media.Evacuees from Marawi City told reporters Thursday that they are convinced the small group was merely flaunting their demand for authorities to let them return to their abandoned homes where conditions could be better than in squalid ev

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities are now setting up five guarded boat docks here to prevent criminals and Islamic militants from launching attacks from any of the large rivers crisscrossing the city.Cotabato City, covering 37 barangays, is traversed by rivers that spring from the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta in the upper valley of central Mindanao and tributaries of the Rio Grande de Mindanao that springs from Bukidnon province in Region 10.Halima Satol-Ibrahim, information officer of the Cotabato City government, told this news outfit Wednesday that the security measure is premised on an ex

COTABATO CITY --- Senate’s approval on Monday of the P33.4 billion proposed 2018 budget for five Moro provinces will boost Malacañang’s current diplomatic overture with southern Muslim communities, peace activists said Tuesday.The Bureau of Public Information-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said in a press communiqué Tuesday that among the senators who tacitly gave the proposal imprimatur during deliberations Monday were Panfilo Lacson, Sr.

MARAWI CITY -- A new armed group emerged Monday to demand the restoration of normalcy in this city and Lanao del Sur.In a post on line, the group introduced itself and its demands.Below is the Meranaw Victims Movement (MVM) narrative of why it existedandI. WHO WE AREDear fellow Meranaws, we are your sons and brethren, who are among the evacuees from Marawi City. Some of us have relatives among the civilians who perished and what is more hurting is that their remains have yet to be retrieved.

PASAY CITY- Representatives of the ARMM led by Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman faced the Senate Committee on Finance (Subcommittee E) chaired by Senator Panfilo Lacson to seek endorsement of the region's 33.469B budget to the Senate plenary.Senator Lacson and Senator Juan Mgiuel Zubiri, were present during the interpellation of the ARMM budget.BBL key to better governanceDuring the hearing, allegations of corruption among local executives in the ARMM were raised by Zubiri.