BARMM executive office open after two-week disinfection

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The executive office of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao reopened Wednesday following two weeks of disinfection after a number of employees got infected with coronavirus.

The two-storey building, where Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim holds office, is in the center of BARMM’s 32-hectare capitol in Cotabato City.

Employees will work in shifts to prevent overcrowding in all departments under the Office of the Chief Minister, or OCM.

"People coming in to transact with the OCM must abide with strict anti-COVID-19 rules like mandatory wearing of facemasks and face shields and social distancing," the regional spokesperson, Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo, said Wednesday morning. 

No fewer than 20 BARMM employees and at least two senior regional officials, one of them a member of the 80-seat interim regional parliament, have been afflicted with COVID-19.

Sinarimbo said they are also imposing stringent anti-COVID-19 measures in offices of all agencies under the regional government to prevent more employees from getting infected with COVID-19.