More Maguindanao del Norte residents surrender combat weapons

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Residents of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte surrendered to their local government unit and the police more than a dozen combat weapons, including assault rifles, B40 rocket and 40 millimeter grenade launchers on Tuesday, February 24.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday that the firearms were surrendered by owners through the efforts of Datu Odin Sinsuat Mayor Abdulmain Abas, Vice Mayor Bobsteel Sinsuat, members of their Sangguniang Bayan and their municipal police chief, Major Katherine Paydoen, and her deputy, Captain Sammy Paning.

The neophyte local executives Abas and Sinsuat, elected as running mates only during the last May 12, 2025 elections, had earlier reconciled more than 10 enemy Moro clans in the municipality that figured in deadly gunfights in recent years, triggered by land disputes, political rivalries and affronts to family pride and honor, or "maratabat" in the Maguindanaon vernacular. 

De Guzman said the director of the Maguindanao del Norte provincial police, Col. George Bagundol, Jr., local executives and officials and personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station are cooperating in the enforcing a local disarmament program as part of the peace and security initiatives, partly meant to boost the investment climate in all of the more than 30 barangays in the municipality.

The owners of the surrendered combat weapons are from Baka, Taviran, Badak, Linek, Mompong, Sapalan, Nekitan, Labungan, Tinunggos, Tambak, Dulangan, Kusiong, Kakar, Binolen, Tamontaka, at Capiton, which are among the more than 30 na barangays in Datu Odin Sinsuat, whose municipal center is just less than 40 kilometers away from the capitol of the Bangsamoro government in Cotabato City. 

Residents of other barangays in Datu Odin Sinsuat surrendered last month more than 20 assorted military-type rifles and grenade launchers in support of their municipal government's disarmament campaign.