Tension in Cotabato City as BOL plebiscite kicks off
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Violence preceded the conduct here Monday of the plebiscite for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.
Two men on a motorcycle threw a fragmentation grenade inside the residential yard here of Judge Angelito Rasalan of the Municipal Trial Court in nearby Upi town in Maguindanao on Sunday night, causing panic in the neighborhood.
Rasalan, a city resident who is against ratification of the BOL, is brother of Anecito Rasalan, secretary of Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi. Guiani-Sayadi is vocal in her opposition to BOL.
PNP: Blast likely not related to plebiscite
But the police are looking into personal motives in the blast.
In a press briefing Monday morning, Police Director General Oscar Albayalde said that "seemingly, it was about something personal with the judge."
He said investigators believe someone may be trying to intimidate the judge.
"It has nothing to do with the ongoing plebiscite there," Albayalde said, noting the two grenades were thrown into the judge's compound and not outside, where it would have caused more panic.
Albayalde said he sees no need to deploy more police officers in response to the blast, saying there are more than 20,000 police and military officials to secure polling. "I think we have enough forces there," he said, adding most officers will be in the field.
RELATED: PNP on guard but sees peaceful BOL plebiscite
If ratified, the BOL, or Republic Act 11054, shall pave the way for the replacement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM.
Cotabato City is the present administrative seat of the now 29-year-old ARMM, which also as a regional charter, Republic Act 9054, also ratified via a plebiscite.
Gun attack on house of BTC member
The grenade incident that rocked the city Sunday night preceded a gun attack on the house of lawyer Omar Sema, a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission that drafted the BOL.
Sema is son of former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, who belongs to one of two factions in the Moro National Liberation Front and who is a staunch endorser of the BOL.
Gunmen on motorcycles reportedly parked near the house of the younger Sema and opened fire.
No one was hurt in the shooting incident.
Police bomb disposal experts also deactivated on Monday morning a booby trap made up of a fragmentation grenade found along a road leading to the campus here of the Rojas Elemetary School, which has polling centers.
The school campus was opened to voters after ordnance disposal experts neutralized the bomb.
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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