PNP on guard but sees peaceful BOL plebiscite
MANILA, Philippines — Close to 6,700 police personnel have been deployed to secure the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite, which kicked off early Monday, although police said voting is foreseen to be peaceful.
In a press briefing, Police Director General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police Chief, said that the ARMM regional police office expects a peaceful conduct of the plebiscite since their monitoring indicates a majority of the electorate is in favor of the measure, which will create a new region with more autonomy than the ARMM.
"Based on the monitoring, there are no groups that have expressed strong or active opposition to the introduced political entity, however, we cannot discount the possibility that threat groups such as the Abu Sayyaf Group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Maute and local terrorist groups might create atrocities to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the plebiscite," he said.
Albayalde said the PNP shares the sentiment of President Rodrigo Duterte, who shepherded the bill through Congress and has urged voters to support the law at the plebiscite, that "this law not only serves as an expression of our desire to end more than half a century of armed stuggle in the region but also as a testament to our determination to bring peace."
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The PNP chief said 6,698 police personnel have been deployed to provide security for 2.1 million voters in 2,572 barangaysin the ARMM and in Cotabato City and in Isabela City in Basilan.
Deployed police will be backed by a reserve force of two battalions of the elite Special Action Force and by the Regional Mobile Force from the Calabarzon and Central Luzon regional offices.
He said 10,441 troops from five Armed Forces of the Philippines Joint Task Forces will also provide security.
Police will deploy 3,209 personnel for the February 6 plebiscite in six municipilaties in Lanao del Norte and 39 barangays in North Cotabato.
The BOL, which is meant to implement the peace agreement the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed in 2014, has been questioned at the Supreme Court by Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan Sr. but the court did not issue an order to stop or delay voting.
Moro National Liberation Front founding chairman Nur Misuari and his faction of the MNLF are also opposed to ratification of the BOL.
RELATED: No TRO vs Bangsamoro plebiscite
— Jonathan de Santos
The last Plebiscite Committee leaves the distribution center in Buluan, Maguindanao for Tamontaka in Cotabato City a little past 6 a.m. on Monday as the first day of the plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law starts on Monday, January 21.
Today is #BangsamoroPlebiscite Day. Big day for everyone. Good luck to all. https://t.co/lBdPD90Ehb pic.twitter.com/0LQltCm1Ze
— COMELEC (@COMELEC) January 20, 2019
Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez said over the weekend that as high as 75 percent of the more than two million voters from Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), as well as the cities of Isabela in Basilan and Cotabato in Maguindanao are expected to go out and cast their votes.
A second plebiscite day is set for February 6 for areas in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.
Lawmakers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have filed a bill at the Bangsamoro Transition Authority that will require clear labeling of food with pork and pork by-products in restaurants in the region.
If passed, establishments in ARMM will be required to comply with labeling, display and advertisement regulations that will be created by a Fast Food Labeling Council also proposed in the bill.
The Bangsamoro government participates in a global hunger and malnutrition summit abroad where its representative talked about how constituent communities are struggling to address both.
In a privilege presentation, the physician Kadil Sinolinding Jr., a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro regional parliament, told participants to the June 15-16 Second Global Parliamentary Summit Against Hunger and Malnutrition in Valparaiso in Chile, South America that hunger and malnutrition are two serious issues besetting the Southern Philippine autonomous region.
The summit was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that, along with other UN agencies, have current humanitarian projects in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. — AFP
Muslim merchants in Amai Manabilang, Lanao del Sur are certain of improvements in their trade ties with Christian counterparts in Bukidnon province in Region 10 once the P25 million worth market building project in their municipality gets done.
Many of the farmers in the hinterland Amai Manabilang town in the first district of Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region are former guerillas of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, now producing potatoes, lettuce and other high-value short-term crops.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. says Saturday they are grateful to the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for providing Amai Manabilang with a P25 million market building project. — AFP
Merchants and politicians support the proposed creation of a new Bangsamoro regional capitol in Parang town in Maguindanao del Norte, certain of its positive impact on trading centers in the area and in two other provinces nearby.
The 80-member interim parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is now deliberating on the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Bill 43, the enabling measure for the transfer of the regional capitol to Parang, a historic seaside town in Maguindanao del Norte.
Parang is connected to a number of towns in Lanao del Sur, also in BARMM, and in Zamboanga del Sur in Administrative Region 12, via portions of the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway, fully concreted in 1995 by the regional government then of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. — AFP
A tornado from the sea flattened shanties, felled dozens of palm and orchard trees and damaged boats in Datu Blah Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte Saturday.
Mayor Marshall Sinsuat told reporters Tuesday he has dispatched emergency responders to attend to the needs of affected villagers in Barangay Nalkan, worst hit by the tornado, something they have never experienced before.
Two large cattle were killed when falling coconut trees hit both, a report from the Nalkan barangay government stated.
"Six small motorized fishing boats were also damaged," Sinsuat said. — The STAR/John Unson
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