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COTABATO CITY — Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officer from the Philippine Navy (PN) Brig. Gen. Larry C. Batalla, PN(M), on September 1 paid a courtesy call on Bangsamoro Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal in a friendly get-together.
Batalla, newly installed commander of the Navy’s 1st Marine Brigade, made the occasion an opportunity to personally connect with Iqbal, head of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), one of the 15 primary ministries of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
BARMM Regional Cabinet Secretary Atty. Mariam I. Balahim, CPA, joined the meeting at the office of the education minister.
Iqbal and Batalla shared their thoughts on how the military and education sectors can continue working hand in hand to build peace and create more opportunities for the community.
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, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages — now eight new municipalities — 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. — EKU (✓)