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COTABATO CITY — The Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG) has officially opened its first Barangay Hall for the city in Bagua 1, the first of nine government facilities currently being built in the city.
One of the 15 primary ministries of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the two-story facility will house the barangay council and officials, provide a venue for services and activities, and promote the presence of the Bangsamoro Government.
MILG Minister Atty. Naguib G. Sinarimbo attended the event held on November 21, and stressed the regional government’s goals of becoming an efficient and trusted government.
“Our goal is for every barangay in Cotabato City to have fully functional government centers that are complete with facilities offering every service our constituents need,” he pointed out. The city is the capital of the BARMM.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Ministry has handed over a total of 25 Barangay Halls across the region.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), 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 Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided 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. (✓)