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COTABATO CITY, November 29, 2025 (SDN) — The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) led by Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua has ordered law enforcement agencies in the region to get to the roots of the shooting of an education of official.
On Thursday, November 27, still unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants shot Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) Director General for Madaris Education Prof. Tahir Gandawali Nalg while in Cotabato City while enroute to his office at the MBHTE Building inside the Bangsamoro Government Center (BGC) in the city.
“I have directed our law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough, impartial, and urgent investigation into this incident. The perpetrators and all those behind this cowardly act must be identified and held accountable,” the chief minister emphasizes in a statement issued on the same day of the violent incident.
He was hit by .45 caliber bullets authorities said. His driver and bodyguard were not hurt. The education regional education official was brought to a hospital in another city.
The incident prompted the BARMM government to react with a strong condemnation of the shooting.
“I strongly condemn the attempted killing of one of our most dedicated government officials, Tahir G. Nalg, Director General for Madaris of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE),” declares Macacua, the chief of staff of the Moro Islamic Liberation – Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (MILF-BIAF).
Responding to the attack on one of its high-ranking officials, the MBHTE under the leadership of Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal issued its strongest condemnation what it termed as a “senseless act of violence.”
“We express our strongest condemnation of this senseless act of violence against an esteemed educator and public servant who has dedicated his life to advancing quality peace-building education for the Bangsamoro. Such brutality has no place in our communities and undermines our collective pursuit of moral governance, safety, and lasting peace in the region,” the MBHTE says in a separate statement.
The education ministry noted that Nalg is presently undergoing treatment. “We join his family, colleagues, and the entire education community in praying for his full recovery.”
Macacua described the shooting as a violence act that attacks the “values of peace, justice, and moral governance that we, as a Bangsamoro community, continue to uphold.”
Violence has no place in Bangsamoro society
He said that public servants should never be intimidated or harmed in any way, adding any attack on a government official is an attack on the Bangsamoro Government’s institutions as well as the collective progress the regional government is continuing to build.
Macacua extended his well wishes and prayers and solidarity to family and colleagues of the Madaris Education head of MBHTE.
“Violence has no place in our society. Let us stand united, uphold the rule of law, and work together for a safer and more peaceful Bangsamoro,” the chief minister appeals.
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. — SONNY SABDULLAH (✓)