Services to Moro sectors of non-BARMM provincial government cited

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Ranking Bangsamoro officials on Saturday, March 22, separately promised support for the programs of the chairperson of the Regional Development Council-12 for Muslim communities in Cotabato province and in 63 Moro barangays in its territory but are under the autonomous region.

The figurehead of the RDC-12, Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza, had reassured to sustain the provincial government’s peace and development programs for Muslim, Christian and indigenous communities in Cotabato province in her state of the province address last Tuesday, March 18, in Kidapawan City.

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has 63 barangays in different areas in Cotabato province that were grouped into eight municipalities last year via separate enabling measures by the 80-seat regional parliament. Cotabato is one of the four provinces in Administrative Region 12, which is covered by the multi-sector RDC 12 led by Mendoza.

Three BARMM officials, Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, Health Minister Kadil Sinolinding, Jr. and Transportation and Communications Minister Paisalin Tago separately told reporters on Saturday, March 22, that they are grateful to Mendoza and her constituent-mayors, in whose towns the 63 Bangsamoro barangays originally belonged, for continuously extending basic services to residents despite being no longer under their jurisdiction.

“In context, the state of the province address of the lady governor indicated that the doors to her office shall remain open to residents of the 63 Bangsamoro barangays needing basic services,” Sema said.

Sema, who is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, said the MNLF has enclaves in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in different towns in Cotabato that are recognized by the police and military as peace zones based on their September 2, 1996 peace agreement with Malacañang.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment-BARMM, which Sema has been managing as a minister for more than three years now, has projects in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays, grouped together as the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area, or SGA. Residents of the 63 barangays voted in favor of the inclusion of their domains into the core territory of BARMM during a plebiscite in early 2019.

The physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding, who is at the helm of BARMM’s health ministry, said the office of Mendoza had not stopped providing SGA residents with health interventions even if no longer under the Cotabato provincial government and the offices of mayors in different towns where the 63 Bangsamoro barangays originally belonged.

Traditional Moro leaders and mayors of the eight newly-established BARMM towns covering the 63 Bangsamoro barangays had told reporters that government and private hospitals in Cotabato province have not excluded patients from the SGA areas from medical services being paid for by the Cotabato provincial government, supposedly programmed only its direct constituents. 

Sinolinding and Tago, who is trying to work out the setting up of telecommunications systems in the SGA, separately said they also appreciate the support of the Mendoza administration to the efforts of the Bangsamoro government to capacitate all of the eight newly-created municipal governments covering the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in Cotabato province.

“What is good here is that we have a provincial government in Cotabato province in Region 12 whose officials are known for their active patronage of the government’s separate peace processes with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,” Sinolinding said.