Villagers set up 'forest park' in new BARMM town

COTABATO CITY — A multi-sector group planted a thousand Narra seedlings on Sunday, December 1, in a swath of land in a newly-established Bangsamoro town that local residents are trying to set up as an eco-tourism site.

Radio reports in Central Mindanao on Tuesday, December 3, stated that personnel of the Army’s 34th Infantry Battalion and the Bangsamoro regional police, students, Muslim religious leaders, farmers and officials of the Serbisyong Inklusibo Alyansang Progresibo (SIAP Party) initiated the tree planting activity in Barangay Datu Binasing in Pahamuddin town.

Pahamuddin is one of the eight newly created towns in the Special Geographic Area (SGA) under the Bangsamoro regional government but is inside Cotabato province, one of four provinces in Administrative Region 12.

Residents of Pahamuddin are setting up a forest park in Barangay Binasing as a model reforestation project that can be replicated in nearby towns.

The SIAP Party was represented in Sunday's activity by members led by its top official in Cotabato City and the SGA area, the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, former local government minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Rosslaini Alonto-Sinarimbo, director-general of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism-BARMM, also helped facilitate the planting of 1,000 Narra seedlings at the project site.

Radio stations in BARMM and cities in Region 12 reported on Tuesday that the community forest park project in Pahamuddin is the first ever in the autonomous region, supported by elected officials in nearby Pigcawayan and Midsayap towns that are both under Region 12.