BARMM Ramadan security measures in place

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police and military are together guarding mosques where Muslims perform traditional worship rites related to the Ramadan season that started Thursday.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the Ramadan, lasting one lunar cycle, or about 29 days, as a religious obligation and reparation for wrongdoings.

Brig. Gen. John Guyguyon, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said Saturday their municipal police stations have enlisted the support of barangay officials and local government units in ensuring a peaceful Ramadan in all of the five provinces and three cities under PRO-BAR’s jurisdiction.

“All is well so far. We are working, along with the Army's 6th Infantry Division and all other units of the Western Mindanao Command, to ensure peace and calm in all parts of the autonomous region during the Ramadan,” Guyguyon told reporters Saturday.

The Ramadan peace and security efforts of the 6th ID Maguindanao, in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in Cotabato province and in parts of Lanao del Sur are coordinated closely with the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao via its Ministry of the Interior and Local Government.

The region’s local government minister, Naguib Sinarimbo, said Saturday fasting employees and officials of BARMM agencies are to report for work early during workdays and perform their respective assignments until 3:00 p.m. daily.

“Muslim employees and officials shall work during lunchtime. Observing the Ramadan yearly is so important for us,” Sinarimbo said.

Sinarimbo said Muslim personnel of their emergency response contingent Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence, operating under his supervision, are to work continuously even if they are fasting during daytime.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza announced on Saturday that her office shall provide 10 sacks of rice to each of the 63 BARMM barangays in her province.

“We shall also provide rice to the barangays in Pagalungan and Montawal municipalities in Maguindanao del Sur which are near the seat of our provincial government in Kidapawan City,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said Cotabato’s first-termer congresswoman, Samantha Santos, and Party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, are to support her administration’s rice dispersal activity for the 63 BARMM barangays in different towns in her province.

Mendoza said she has asked the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and the mayors in the province to cooperate in maintaining law and order  during the Ramadan season.