BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES

COTABATO CITY — A measure requiring students to plant trees in the region has been presented in the Bangsamoro Parliament. 

Parliament Bill No.106 or the ‘BARMM Tree Planting Act’ aims to protect forests and address climate change in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by obliging all students in grade six to grade 12 and graduating college students from both public and private schools, to plant at least two trees every year.

COTABATO CITY --- Thousands of Moro Islamic Liberation Front members in Basilan joined Wednesday’s peace caravan in the island province to dramatize their bid for a three-year extension of the term of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

Hadji Dan Asnawie, chief of the MILF’s 114^th Base Command in Basilan, said Friday they are optimistic President Rodrigo Duterte will certify as urgent a bill pending in the legislature seeking the deferment to 2025 of next year’s first ever regional elections in the Bangsamoro region.

KORONADAL CITY --- Aboard motorcycles and cars, thousands of Bangsamoro people, including members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), endured the heat for a 100-kilometer, three-province slow-moving caravan to dramatize once again on Wednesday their call to extend the transition period in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

COTABATO CITY --- Gunmen killed three villagers and seriously wounded six others in a daring attack in Buldon, Maguindanao Friday night.

The fatalities, Jay-ar Diaz, Bonbon Diaz and the minor Jimmy Manimbula died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

They were whiling away time in a videoke bar in Barangay Edcor in Buldon, a hinterland town in the first district of Maguindanao when their killers, armed with pistols and assault rifles, arrived and opened fire, killing all three of them instantly.

COTABATO CITY – Bangsamoro Parliament Deputy Speakers Ziaur-Rahman Adiong and Atty. Nabil Tan, and Parliament Member Atty. Ubaida Pacasem filed on Thursday, June 17, a bill that seeks to appropriate Php50 million for the acquisition of additional oxygen tanks to be distributed in the different provinces of the region.

“The bill is being introduced as a pre-emptive measure to guarantee the sufficient supply of oxygen in our medical facilities in the region,” reads the authors’ explanatory note.

COTABATO CITY --- The Bangsamoro parliament has approved the Overseas Bangsamoro Workers Act meant to ensure the welfare and protection from abusive employers of constituents working abroad.

Regional Labor Minister Romeo Sema said Friday the Overseas Bangsamoro Workers Act (OBWA) was approved on third and final reading Thursday by the 80 member Bangsamoro Transition Authority, or BTA.

The BTA is more known as the interim parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which is led by Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim.

COTABATO CITY – Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim highlighted in his Report to the Bangsamoro that the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) will prioritize the passage of the three remaining codes on local government, electoral, and revenue as it opened its third regular session on Tuesday, June 15.

“I earnestly ask the full cooperation of our colleagues in the parliament as we pass very important legislations starting today,” Ebrahim said via zoom.

COTABATO CITY --- Authorities dismantled a drug den owned by seven traffickers who fell in an entrapment operation in Sulu early this week, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Wednesday.

The PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao identified the seven suspects as Aifasal  Misari, Jimmy Jalil, Nasser Usman, Narjimar Alimudin, Den Abduljalan, Sai Jomar Jalil, and Alnaser Abdulhadi.

They shall be prosecuted for violation of Republic Act 9165, also known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

COTABATO CITY  – The leadership of the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) today expressed optimism the Filipino people can survive and achieve independence from the pandemic.

“Our love for our country is needed now more than ever,” BARMM chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, said in a statement as the country commemorate 123^rd anniversary of Philippine Independence.

“With COVID 19 taking over for more than a year our patriotism can be manifested even with the smallest acts such as observing the minimum health standards,” he added.

COTABATO CITY – Top leaders of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are “not preparing” the ground works for the May 2022 election, even as some officials have embraced party-based reforms pushed by the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP).

Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM spokesman, said UBJP builds on the principles of “transforming our political exercises so that elections perennially influenced by money- and personality-based politics will soon become a thing of the past.”