Residents of 8 new BARMM towns express support for Senate Bill 2875

COTABATO CITY — Residents of the eight new Bangsamoro municipalities in Cotabato province in Region 12 are now gladly looking forward to the creation of a province that shall cover their domains via Senate Bill 2875.

Sen. Robinhood Ferdinand Padilla on Monday, November 11, filed the Senate Bill 2875, meant to establish the Kutawato province that shall group the Pahamuddin, Kadayangan, Nabalawag, Old Kaabakan, Kapalawan, Malidegao, Tugunan and Ligawasan municipalities that were created via separate enabling measures this year by the 80-seat Bangsamoro regional parliament.

The eight municipalities cover 63 predominantly Moro barangays, originally grouped as the Bangsamoro Special Geographic  Area, or SGA, in different towns in Cotabato province in Region 12 whose residents voted in favor of the inclusion of their barangays into the proposed core territory of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao via a plebiscite in 2019.

“To facilitate the swift development of these newly established municipalities within the special geographic area and to ensure the provision of essential services to their constituents, it is essential to establish a province that will oversee and support these localities,” Padilla stated in the bill’s explanatory note.

Three BARMM officials, Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, Transportation and Communications Minister Paisalin Tago and Health Minister Kadil Sinolinding Jr., separately told reporters on Wednesday that they are grateful to Padilla for focusing attention on the need to group the eight Bangsamoro towns into one province to boost local governance.

The physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding, who belongs to a Moro clan whose members are scattered in Nabalawag, Old Kaabacan, Kapalawan and Malidegao towns, said he is optimistic that the Senate Bill 2875 would get the imprimatur of other senators.

“Senate Bill 2875 is essential in the setting up of a provincial government for these eight municipalities, a provincial government that shall serve Moro constituents, many of them identified with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,” Sinolinding said.

The eight newly-created Bangsamoro towns in Cotabato province have barangays that are known bastions of the MNLF and the MILF that have separate peace agreements with the national government.

Padilla said the creation of the province would streamline the delivery of basic services and enhance local government operations within the autonomous region.

Sema, chairman of the MNLF, said the setting up of the Kutawato province covering eight BARMM towns inside Region 12 augurs well with the peace and socio-economic agenda of the front’s September 2, 1996 peace pact with Malacanang.

“If public consultations related to the passage into law of that bill is done, members of the MNLF will participate and express favor for it,” Sema said.