BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY --- Teachers in Lamitan City have been facilitating for three weeks now house-to-house enrollment of children to stop  downtrend caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lamitan City is in Basilan, an island province in the Bangsamoro region. 

Myra Borja Mangkabung, superintendent of schools in Lamitan City, said Wednesday their effort is meant to sustain educational interventions for the local communities for 2020-2021. 

“It is being stifled badly by the COVID-19 problem,” she said.

CCOTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) is urging the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to fast track the investigation regarding the massacre of nine (9) civilians in Kabacan, Cotabato Province via a resolution approved on Thursday, September 17.

The Proposed Resolution No. 302 strongly condemns the massacre of nine (9) civilians in Kabacan, Cotabato Province, that occurred on August 29, 2020 around noon time near the University of Southern Mindanao (USM).

COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) approved the creation of the Bangsamoro Sports Commission (BSC) Thursday, September 17, at the BTA Executive Lounge, in Cotabato City.

Fifty (50) Members of the Parliament (MPs) voted via online, while two (2) members voted physically, all in favor of the passage of the said bill. It was done through nominal voting during the 42nd plenary session of its Second Regular Session via Zoom online teleconferencing. 

None of the MPs voted against nor abstained on the approval of the said law. 

LANAO DEL SUR --- Anti-narcotics agents seized P6.8 million worth of shabu from a municipal councilor and three cohorts who fell in an entrapment operation in Marawi City Thursday.

Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Simpanor Capal Salic, an incumbent municipal councilor of Tagoloan, Lanao del Sur is now detained.

His three accomplices, Esnaira Capal and Malik Pangcoga Hadji Sali, former members of the Tagoloan Sangguniang Bayan, and Rodrigo Sequino, were also arrested.

COTABATO CITY - The Bangsamoro Government’s ‘Ayudang Medikal mula sa Bangsamoro Government’ (AMBAG) Program has released over Php425,000.00 worth of hospital assistance to aid the Jolo blasts victims in Sulu.

The said assistance covered thirty-one (31) admitted patients at Sulu Provincial Hospital, who were victims of twin bombings that happened on August 24, 2020.

COTABATO CITY – Vice Mayor Datu Akmad B. Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao resigned from his position on Monday due to health issues.

The 58-year-old official was replaced by Datu Amier Akmad Aguak, the municipality’s top councilor.

“It is with mixed emotions that I accept the resignation of Datu Akmad,” Mayor Marop Ampatuan, son of the resigned vice mayor, said in a phone interview.

Anwar Kuit Emblawa, the secretary to the mayor, said a formal turnover of the vice-mayoral position took place on the same day at the town hall.

COTABATO CITY ---- The Bangsamoro government is distributing more computers to three island provinces that frontliners can use for data processing essential to the war on coronavirus.

Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, interior and local government minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Saturday they are to ship soon the computers and accessories to their provincial offices in the scattered Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi island provinces.

COTABATO CITY  – A member of Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao legislative body today admitted he was infected with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), making him the second BARMM ranking official to have the virus.

“I am sad to announce and inform the public that I tested positive for COVID-19,” Dr. Marjanie Mimbantas-Macasalong, parliament member of the BARMM’s Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), said in a statement released today.

MP Macasalong said on Sunday, Sept. 6, he had fever, experienced headache and body pain so he isolated himself.

LANAO del Sur---The provincial local government unit (LGU) of Lanao del Sur promotes social cohesion by improving on two-way radio communication system in communities to forestall future regrouping of terrorists.

Governor Mamintal Bombit Adiong Jr. said the provincial government is working on enhanced mode of “social cohesion, inclusion and peaceful community engagement” in a sustained partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).