TOURISM

COTABATO CITY --- There is a new “peace landmark” in this city now frequented by Muslim, Christian and Lumad tourists from across central Mindanao.

Congresswoman Bai Sandra Sema of the first congressional district of Maguindanao and representatives from the three communities inaugurated Wednesday the now tourist attraction “Baiwalk” (baywalk).

A project of the now outgoing third-termer congresswoman, the Baiwalk along the picturesque and historic Tamontaka River in Cotabato City is a two-kilometer riverbank erosion control structure and a riverside park.

COTABATO CITY – The first ever riverside park free for public use was officially opened Wednesday by Rep. Bai Sandra Sema and 6th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana.

More known as Bai Walk, the park will serve as family free park for Cotabatenios and visitors.

Rep. Sema of Maguindanao 1st district with Cotabato City, said the park was first envisioned to be a ramp area for women and mothers as part of women empowerment but is now open to the public.

MAGUINDANAO --- The non-Moro Tedurays were champion again in the cultural street dance parade contest that capped off the culmination on Thursday of the Inaul Festival.The winning contingent from Upi town in the first district of Maguindanao also topped in the same event during the 2017 and 2018 provincial Inaul Festival.The festival, pioneered in 2017 by the now outgoing third-termer Gov.

BASILAN --- Residents of this island province want the rainforests in the Sampinit Complex, now free from Abu Sayyaf forces that once ran a shadow government there, declared a protected wildlife reservation.The mountain ranges in the Sampinit Complex, where the Abu Sayyaf held no fewer than 200 captives from between 1994 to 2010, are now being connected to trading sites in Sumisip and Maluso towns and to the provincial capital, Lamitan City, via the Basilan Transcentral Highway costing more than P1 billion.Gov.

MAGUINDANAO --- The province launched Thursday the colorful Inaul Festival showcasing an iconic Moro fabric and as thanksgiving for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.Ratified via a plebiscite last January 21, the BOL, or Republic Act 11054, is a product of 20 years of talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, meant to end decades of strife in southern Mindanao.Maguindanao Gov.

COTABATO CITY – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) formally inaugurated the first Bangsamoro Museum on Monday, February 4, at Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex here.The Bangsamoro Museum is a facility established under Executive Order No. 32 s. 2019. It serves as repository of artifacts, works of art, as well as textual and iconographic records relevant to the cultural memory of the Bangsamoro people in the ARMM.Governor Mujiv Hataman, who led the opening of the museum, underscored it was not easy for the regional government to put up such facility.

MANILA - Another Filipina made history for winning the first Miss Intercontinental crown for the Philippines.Filipino-Australian beauty queen Karen Gallman on was crowned Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena where the pageant was held.Gallman has roots in Brisbane and Bohol.First runner up went toCosta Rica, Slovak Republic at 2nd, Colombia 3rd, Vietnam 4th, and Ethiopia 5th.This was the first time Philippines hosted the pageant after Japan requested it due to preparations for 2020 Olympic Games.

MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato -- Below are the images of Halad Festival in celebration of the feast of Sto. NIno.Photos courtesy of Fr. Jonathan Domingo, OMI, president of Notre Dame of Midsayap College.

COTABATO CITY - Central Mindanao residents shall witness this week cultural activities related to two festivals keeping alive the ethnicity and rosy history of the local communities.Led by local officials, Cotabato City residents launched on Sunday the Shariff Kabunsuan Festival, a yearly event highlighting how Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan, a Malay-Arab Islamic theologian from Johore in what is now Malaysia, arrived here in the 14thcentury to spread Islam.The event was capped off with a parade by students in ethnic attires from different schools in the city and from Maguindanao province.Besid