Cotabato, BARMM collaborate to provide health services in Moro communities

COTABATO CITY —Residents of eight fledgling Moro towns in the Special Geographic Area (SGA) welcome the ongoing partnership between the Cotabato governor’s office and the Bangsamoro health ministry, which continues to provide them with essential services despite their communities’ separation from the province.

The eight towns, Pahamuddin, Kadayangan, Nabalawag, Old Kaabakan, Kapalawan, Malidegao, Tugunan and Ligawasan, span 63 barangays that originally belonged to different Cotabato towns. These areas became part of the SGA after residents voted in a 2019 plebiscite to include their contiguous ancestral enclaves in the proposed Bangsamoro territory.

Radio reports on Monday, January 12, stated that BARMM Health Minister Kadil Sinolinding Jr. and Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza met last week at the provincial capitol in Kidapawan City. They agreed to continue cooperating in providing medical services for residents of the SGA, whose eight towns fall under the Bangsamoro government but are located within Cotabato, a component province of Administrative Region 12.

“We are grateful to the office of the Cotabato governor for that,” Mohammad Kellie Antao, a member of the 80-seat BARMM parliament from Libungan town in Cotabato who has relatives in the SGA, said.

Antao said the Cotabato provincial government has continued providing health, social welfare, and other basic services to residents of the 63 SGA barangays, even though the areas are no longer under its jurisdiction.

Mursid Andig, a 70-year-old farmer from Old Kaabacan, added that Taliño-Mendoza’s office, now in her second term, distributes rice to residents and their religious leaders overseeing mosques across different barangays during the annual Islamic Ramadan fasting season.

“The Cotabato provincial government, in fact, does not have any obligation to do that anymore,” Andig told reporters in Filipino and in a Maguindanaon accent.

Physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding and the mayors of the eight BARMM towns in the SGA, including Esmael Mama of Ligawasan, told reporters on Monday that the Cotabato provincial government is also assisting the police and the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade in maintaining law and order in the area.

Sinolinding, who serves concurrently as a member of the Bangsamoro parliament, added that the Cotabato provincial government has been allocating funds to private hospitals in the province to cover portions of medical bills for marginalized Moro patients from any of the eight newly created SGA towns.