MAIGO, Lanao del Norte (MindaNews / 23 July) — Even though this province is outside the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the BARMM nevertheless opened an office in the coastal village of Segapud in this municipality Wednesday morning.
The Office for Other Bangsamoro Communities (OOBC), which is under the Office of the Chief Minister, has rented a space at the Granaderos Beach Resort compound. It will be managed by Mohammad Hamid Bato, the community affairs officer, according to Noron S. Andan, OOBC executive director.
“This office will serve not only Muslims but Christians as well,” Andan said during the inauguration ceremony.
Andan said another OOBC office will be established in Bukidnon and in General Santos City,
aside from the one in Pagadian City, which was established earlier.
Bato said 150 Muslim and Christian beneficiaries from Segapud, Poblacion, Mentring and Muntai, all of Maigo, received direct assistance during the opening of the OOBC here.
He said beneficiaries received 25 kilos of rice, had free medical checkup with medicines, and given seeds for farming. BARMM’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Services and Development, and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform helped out.
Bato said 30 beneficiaries received assistive devices such as cane and crutches, and three children classified as persons with disability were given wheelchairs.
“I am thankful that my seven-year-old child was given a wheelchair so I don’t have to carry her always anymore,” Noraiza Batoa, from the hinterland village of Mentring, said in Filipino. She is hoping that her daughter can start going to school.
Dr. Alinadir Minalang, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office of Lanao del Sur and representative of the Ministry of Health, said: “We are ready to provide health services outside the core territory of BARMM because health is very vital in the residents’ daily undertakings.”
The OOBC was established following the approval of the Bangsamoro Administrative Code by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority in October 2020.
It was created “to ensure the protection of the rights and enhance the economic, social, and
cultural development of Bangsamoro people residing in communities outside [BARMM].” (Richel V. Umel / MindaNews)
