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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY, January 8, 2024 (SDN) — On January 3, the Bangsamoro regional government’s Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) continued its distribution of education-related materials and supplies to the region’s schools.
Depending on where the distribution is to be implemented, it is either easy or difficult to do.
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.
As gleaned from the above, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has landlocked (Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Lanao del Sur) and island components (Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi).
So, it is easy to see where difficulty lies when the MBHTE, headed by Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, one of the 15 primary ministries of the BARMM, go on to deliver and distribute educational materials, including cumbersome armchairs or desks for schools that highly need them.
And the difficulty is in the island provinces, especially that Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi also have many island municipalities as well that reaching them entails a battle against patience and the unpredictable see, not to say the weather.
But no matter, the Bangsamoro education ministry appears to be undaunted by any obstacle. Call of duty, one can say.
A contingent from the MBHTE, as Santhalia “Bai Mot” Abdullah (chief, Property and Supply Section) relayed to SDN – SciTech & Digital News, crossed the seas to Tawi-Tawi, on board a Philippine Navy (PN) ship bringing all the thousands of armchairs and hoard of school supplies, like IT equipment, and more.
Here are some photographs:
The armchairs were released to, among others, anglima Sugala, South Ubian District: 1. Nusa-Nusa PS – 80pcs 2. Hadji Abdulcadil Elementary School – 80pcs 3. Bintawlan Elementary Scholl – 80pcs 4. Sollogan Elementary School – 80pcs.
Navy officers on the naval ship that transported the armchairs and school supplies included:
YN3 Jusyfa D. Luminog CO-T20-044588 PN(Res); S1DP Kimberly A. Santiago CO T22 063718 PN (Res); SN2 Eric D Obal CO-T22-063721 PN (Res); PO3 Mohamad Ali D Nasa CO-T22-063704 PN (Res); SN2 Jose Antonio K. Garrigues PN (Res); ML-R15-000024 S2GM Richard A. Gumban CO-T22-063723 PN (Res); and PO3 Christopher Baling Lador CO-T22 063697 PN (Res) of 62nd Naval Group Reserve. — EKU via MBHTE (✓)