BARMM locating companions of preachers afflicted with COVID-19
HEALTH • 15:00 PM Wed Mar 18, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
The COVID-19 fatality in Marawi City was immediately buried. (Photo from Lanao del Sur governor's office)
COTABATO CITY --- Authorities have launched a search for the 215 Tabligh missionaries who joined a religious gathering in Malaysia last month after two of them succumbed to coronavirus infection while another is seriously ill of the same disease.
The Islamic all-male Tabligh bloc is comprised of preachers roving in far-flung areas to preach Islam, traditionally clad in Pakistani men’s attire.
Physician Safrullah Dipatuan, health minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters Wednesday their efforts to locate the preachers are being coordinated with the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.
One of the Tabligh who travelled to Malaysia died of COVID-19 infection in a hospital in Marawi City while another is confined at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center in Cotabato City for the same disease.
Most of the 215 Filipino Tablighs who travelled to Malaysia are from the five provinces of BARMM.
Dipatuan said besides their efforts to locate them, the Bangsamoro Ministry of Health is also focused on educating BARMM residents on how to avoid contracting COVID-19.
“Dissemination of information towards that goal is also being done while we are focused on locating these preachers who travelled to Malaysia,” he said.
The COVID-19 stricken Tabligh who died at the the Amai Pakpak Hospital in Marawi City was immediately buried by a team wearing protective suits, according to Dipatuan.
Peace advocates supporting the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have urged Bangsamoro Chief Minister Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, who is chairman of the MILF’s central committee, to direct his followers to help locate the Tablighs Dipatuan and his subordinate health workers are now trying to locate.
There is strong MILF presence in BARMM’s adjoining Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces where most of the Tablighs who went to Malaysia have come from.
The government and the MILF are bound by agreements, crafted by both sides, to cooperate in addressing peace and security issues in southern provinces.