8 new Bangsamoro LGUs now have operation funds

COTABATO CITY — The local government units of the eight newly created Bangsamoro towns in Cotabato province in Region 12 now have periodic subsidies for operations and public service thrusts, a regional official said.

Bangsamoro Local Government Minister Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba told reporters on Tuesday, during a press briefing in Cotabato City, that the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is providing the eight towns with essential funds for governance and community development initiatives.

The Pahamuddin, Kadayangan, Nabalawag, Old Kaabakan, Kapalawan, Malidegao, Tugunan, and Ligawasan municipalities cover 63 barangays in different areas in Cotabato province, whose residents voted in favor of the inclusion of their domains in the core territory of BARMM during a plebiscite in 2019.

The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government-BARMM has technical interventions to capacitate the eight newly established LGUs on governance, public security and domestic peacebuilding thrusts.  

The eight BARMM municipalities were created early this year via separate enabling measures by the 80-member Bangsamoro regional parliament.

“Besides the funds that the Bangsamoro regional government is providing for these eight new local government units, there are also municipal police forces now for each of these municipalities," Dumama-Alba said.

She said the policemen deployed by the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Pahamuddin, Kadayangan, Nabalawag, Old Kaabakan, Kapalawan, Malidegao, Tugunan and Ligawasan are operating under the control of the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office.