COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Regional officials were elated with the new program of two foreign benefactors, the Japanese government and the United Nations Population Fund, on health services for victims of gender-based violence in the Bangsamoro region.
The Japanese government and United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, are to provide about US $5 million, or 742 million Japanese yen, for the Babaeng Bangsamoro Program that would reportedly last for three years.
Leila Joudane, UNFPA’s Philippine country representative, had shared to reporters, who covered Tuesday’s International Conference on Women, Peace and Security in Pasay City, the intricacies of the program.
Two senior Bangsamoro officials, Health Minister Kadil Sinolinding, Jr. and Social Welfare Minister Raissa Jajurie attended the conference. They both assured to support the program.
Joudane had said that they shall have mobile clinics that can provide women in far-flung areas with maternal and sexual reproductive health and family planning interventions.
The physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding, who is also a member of the 80-seat parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Regional Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim separately told reporters on Wednesday that they are grateful to the Japanese government and the UNFPA for embarking on the program.
The Japanese government supported the 22-year peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that led to the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered BARMM.
“We are grateful to the Japanese government and agencies of the United Nations that have humanitarian projects in the Bangsamoro region,” Sinolinding, who had also served as regional health secretary of the now defunct ARMM, said.