BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

MANILA -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued hold departure orders (HDOs) against former Maguindanao Governor Datu Sajid Islam Uy Ampatuan, former Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. and nine others in connection with their graft cases before the Sandiganbayan.According to BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang aside from the Ampatuan brothers, also included in the HDO are John Estelito Dollosa Jr.

COTABATO CITY --- The 1,127-hectare agricultural estate inLamitan City of former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile is now a boomingcommunal enterprise agrarian reform beneficiaries are so proud about.The land was subdivided and awarded to 375 Muslim and Christian farmworkers in 1994 through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.The Enrile-owned Cocoland Development Corporation, covering arablelands in Limook area in Lamitan City, is now a cooperative run by farmers propagating coffee, orchard, rubber and bananas.Some members of the cooperative are also producing rice from smallpatches of rain-f

MAGUINDANAO -- The Maguindanao Program for Education and Community Empowerment (MagPEACE) now boasts of having produced a prospective lawyer and a physician after it was launched seven years ago.The MagPEACE, now assisting more than 6,000 college scholars, is being bankrolled by the office of Maguindanao Gov.

COTABATO CITY – Up to 300 ulama from in and outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are expected to attend an anti-terrorism summit that would be held here from May 12 to 14.Dubbed ‘ARMM Ulama Summit Against Terrorism’, the event is initiated by the regional government in cooperation with the region’s ulama and in line with the Duterte administration’s statement that terrorism is an urgent and critical national security threat.Governor Mujiv Hataman, as well as religious leaders, underscored that the threat of violence and terrorism could further hamper economic growth in th

MAGUINDANAO — The new town government of Shariff Aguakhas been clearing flood-prone creeks and streams of silt and fixing town roads with new equipment purchased the last year, something never witnessed in decades past.In less than a year after being elected in May 2016, Mayor Marop Ampatuan and his father, Vice Mayor Akmad Ampatuan, have procured road-building equipment and rehabilitated close to 50 kilometers of dirt roads crisscrossing Shariff Aguak.The newly-fixed arterial networks in Shariff Aguak were virtually impassable during the rainy days.The new leaders' predecessors are now det

MAGUINDANAO --- President Rodrigo Duterte is keeping a promise to help Maguindanao’s marginalized farmers improve their productivity to hasten the restoration of normalcy in conflict-torn areas, officials said Tuesday.Maguindanao Gov.

MAGUINDANAO --- Two workers of the public works department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao kidnapped in Patikul, Sulu on Thursday were released by their captors without any ransom, officials said Monday.Truck driver Alriznor Halis and his helper, Aljimar Ahari, both employed in the Department of Public Works and Highways-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, were set free by Abu Sayyaf gunmen Sunday night.Brig. Gen.

MARANTAO, Lanao del Sur – Various sectors here have collectively declared war against illegal drugs, terrorism and other organized crimes, pledging utmost support to President Duterte’s drive to bring peace and socio-economic stability in the country, especially in Moro communities.In solemn rites here Thursday, some 300 representatives of women, youth, religious, professional, royalty, academic, police, military and political sectors swore three times to rally the affairs of the Mamamayang Ayaw Sa Anomalya, Mamamayang Ayaw Sa Illegal Drugs (MASA-MASID) program they launched that day.Mara

NORTH COTABATO - Officials have sent emissaries to convince leaders of two feuding groups in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Pikit town to reconcile following clashes that dislocated villagers.Dozens of Moro families were displaced when the two groups, one led by Kedtag and the other by Buaya, figured in running gunfights in Barangay Kabasalan in Pikit, North Cotabato on Wednesday.Chief Inspector Donald Cabigas of the Pikit municipal police said Kedtag is a senior official of the MILF’s 118thBase Command while Buaya belong to the front’s self-styled National Guards Division.

MAGUINDANAO --- Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front showed force and fired rifles overhead near the police precinct in Parang town on Monday in protest of the arrest of a commander for illegal gun possession.Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said the incident sent hundreds of innocent villagers running for their lives.Tello said the group of Solaiman Dimatunday, a senior MILF commander in nearby Barira town in Maguindanao, arrived in the town proper of Parang, approached the municipal police station and indiscriminately fired guns o