BARMM News
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SIBUTU, Tawi-Tawi (SDN) — The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) has continued its island-hopping in the Bangsamoro region to bring the “dividends of peace” to the area’s progressed-starved communities.
Comprising the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are the mainland provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao and their cities — Cotabato and Marawi — as well as the Special Geographic Area (SGA) carved out of non-BARMM North Cotabato made up of 63 barangays or villages that voted in the January and February 2019 plebiscites to join the region.
On the other hand, Basilan (and its city, Lamitan), Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi are the Bangsamoro region’s island provinces.
The Bansamoro Organic Law (BOL) established the BARMM to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed after 17 years of protracted peace negotiations.
Headed by Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo, the MILG, one of the BARMM’s line agencies, has been implementing various programs, projects, and services to its constituent local government units (LGUs), including construction of Municipal Hall, Philippine National Police (PNP) Stations, Public Market, Public Terminal, Tourism Center, seawater desalination facilities, and improvement of water systems, among others.
Sinarimbo said many of the building projects since the BARMM’s creation have already been completed and turned over to the respective beneficiary LGUs, while others are being built and still others in the planning stage.
On July 19, Sinarimbo reported that his team, accompanied by select BARMM-based reporters, hopped on another island of the region.
“We spent a night in the beautiful island municipality of Sibutu, Tawi-Tawi, to ground-break our Municipal Hall building project there with the honorable Mayor Pajiji-Ahaja,” he said.
“Sibutu lies at our border with Indonesia along the Celebes Sea. It has beautiful powdery white beaches that stretches to as far as the eyes can see. It is also one of the major producers of seaweeds and together with Sitangkai, they account for 60 percent of the country’s seaweeds production output.”
He noted the locals’ “interesting claim” that the while the bringer of Islam to the Philippines, Arab trader Sheikh Karimul Makdum, built the country’s first-ever Islamic house of worship, he was “actually buried” on Sibutu island.
That house of worship is now called the Sheikh Karimul Makdum Mosque, with its two massive wood posts still stand to this day inside the religious structure.
Sinarimbo said he visited the claimed burial place and recited Al-Fatiha (The Beginning) of the Holy Qur’an, a plea for Allah’s guidance to the “Straight Path.”
He also pointed out the island of Sibutu is home to some of the country’s best boat builders. Their boats ply the islands, including to Zamboanga City, as well as the barter trade boats that sail to Malaysia’s nearest point. — EKU (/)