Villagers in Cotabato town receive free medical, dental services

COTABATO CITY — More than 200 marginalized villagers in Barangay Tacupan, Carmen, Cotabato benefited from a medical and dental mission conducted by the provincial government on Tuesday, May 12.

Radio reports on Thursday, May 14, stated that among the 227 residents of Barangay Tacupan who were served by a team from the office of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, along with physicians and nurses from the provincial health office and the Integrated Health Office–Cotabato, were elderly patients, pregnant women, and preschool children.

Barangay officials said the outreach activity in Tacupan was personally led by Taliño-Mendoza and her team from the provincial government, with support from local officials.

“Our activity at Barangay Tacupan was part of our continuing community health services meant to keep our constituents healthy, physically-fit all the time and keep them safe from contagious diseases,” Taliño-Mendoza told reporters on Thursday.

More than 20 grade school boys were also reportedly circumcised for free by health workers during the public service mission at Barangay Tacupan.

Carmen municipal officials said some of the Tacupan residents examined by doctors and provided with free medicines for their illnesses are from Moro communities, among them relatives of decommissioned members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which have separate peace agreements with the national government.

Both former Moro rebel fronts have representatives in the 80-member parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), whose regional capital is Cotabato City, about a hundred kilometers southwest of Carmen, one of the 17 towns in Cotabato province in Region 12.