BARMM News
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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — Spreading the “dividends of peace” in the Bangsamoro region continues to the New Year 2023.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-led autonomous government under Chief Minister Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim has been implementing various building projects through at least the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG).
Now running on its fourth year, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) was created in 2019 by virtue Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL). The organic law was implementing the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) signed by the Philippine Government (GPH) and the MILF.
GPH and MILF arrived at the CAB after a over 17 years of protracted peace talks characterized by breakdowns of ceasefire and major and minor shooting war. Then President Benigno S. Aquino III and Ebrahim made it all — the CAB.
Now, the MILF, founded in 1977 by then Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) vice chairman Al-Azhar University alumnus Ustadhz Salamat Hashim is governing the autonomous region after agreeing to scale down its struggle for independence to “meaningful and stronger autonomy” than the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Now, still, under the leadership of Ministery Naguib G. Sinarimbo, the MILG has been tasked by the Office of the Chief Minister (OCM) to implement building projects, such as Municipal Halls, Public Terminals, Tourism Centers, Philippine National Police (PNP) Stations, Public Markets, Barangay Halls, Seawater Desalination Facilities, and Water Systems. Many have already been completed, many still being built, and many in planning stage.
As the first few days of the new year rolled, Sinarimbo’s MILG has completed another Barangay Hall in the Special Geographic Area (SGA). The SGA, which falls under the Bangsamoro jurisdiction through plebiscite in 2019, is located geographically in North Cotabato province though not part of BARMM.
“Another Barangay Hall has been completed in Barangay Kadingilan, Pigkawayan Cluster of the Special Geographic Area. For this month, we are set to turn over more than 10 units of completed Barangay Halls across the region,” points out Sinarimbo.
The BARMM population per the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. (✓)