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COTABATO CITY — On April 13, 2023, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Chief Minister Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim convened the Bangsamoro Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (BDRRMC) to address several challenges on disaster response, recovery and rehabilitation in the region.
Lawyer Naguib G. Sinarimbo, head of the BARMM Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG), said the event was the first of three activities he and other BARMM officials participated in.
As of press time, the issues addressed at the meeting were still no available as well as the solutions to overcome them.
Interior Minister Sinarimbo, also the BARMM spokesperson, noted the BDRRMC meeting was the first time newly appointed Maguindanao del Norte Officer-in-Charge (OIC)-Gov. Abdulraof “Sammy Gambar” Macacua formally joined the meeting of the Council as he represented his province.
The Bangsamoro region is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under BARMM jurisdiction.
The MILG chief said the BDRMMC meeting was followed by the meeting between Macacua who, as Sammy Gambar, his nom de guerre, was the military chief of the former revolutionary Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILG), and the Philippine Army’s (PA) Major Gen. Alex S. Rillera, commanding general of the Army’s 6 Infantry Division (6ID) based at Camp Siongco, Awang Airport, Cotabato City, Maguindanao del Norte. Rillera is also the commander of the Joint Task Force Command (JTFC).
Macacua, formerly the senior minister of the BARMM, received “appropriate honor and warmly welcomed by the entire command of the 6ID”, Sinarimbo, who joined the meeting, observed.
After the meeting at Camp Siongco, the MILG minister said they proceeded to Datu Blah Sinsuat municipality “where Governor Macacua held his first official visit to a constituent municipality of his province and broe ground for the construction of a modern Fire Station for the municipality of Datu Blah Sinsuat”.
Sinarimbo added that many mayors from Maguindanao del Norte joined the Governor in his first-ever project implementation engagement just two days after he formally assumed as Governor of the new province.
The MILG chief was hopeful that “Great things are, indeed, in store for the province of Maguindanao del Norte and its people!”
According to the Philippine Atlas, the BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao provinces combined, 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. — EDD K. USMAN (✓)