BARMM lawmakers continue Ramadhan outreach activities

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March 5, 2026 | 6:28pm

COTABATO CITY — Marginalized Muslims in Cotabato City and nearby Moro communities in Cotabato province, Region 12, have benefited from ongoing Ramadhan outreach missions by members of the 80-seat regional parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which began last week.

Radio reports on Thursday, March 5, in Cotabato City and nearby areas in Region 12 stated that a team from the office of regional lawmaker Kadil Sinolinding Jr. delivered more than a dozen large boxes of medicines for various ailments to municipal officials in Kapalawan town, Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area (SGA) in Cotabato province, last Monday, March 2, as part of a Ramadan outreach initiative.

The medicines were received by Kapalawan Vice Mayor Serafin Maguid and municipal health officials, who will facilitate their distribution to sick residents in the predominantly Moro municipality.

Kapalawan is one of the eight municipalities in the SGA-BARMM, created about two years ago through enabling measures by the regional parliament. Although all eight municipalities are located within Cotabato province in Region 12, they fall under the jurisdiction of the autonomous regional government.

Maguid told reporters on Thursday, March 5, that the municipal government appreciates the Ramadan donation from the office of physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding, who is also concurrently overseeing the Ministry of Health-BARMM.

“It will complement our health services for the Moro communities in barangays under our jurisdiction,” Maguid said.

Barangay officials in Pahamuddin municipality, also in the SGA-BARMM, and Moro community leaders in Cotabato City, the Bangsamoro region’s capital, told reporters that a team from the office of parliamentarian Naguib Sinarimbo has already distributed more than 3,000 bags of rice to families in both areas as part of Ramadan humanitarian activities that began last week.

Physically fit Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadhan, a religious obligation observed according to the lunar Hijrah calendar. The holy month, which began on February 19 this year, also emphasizes reparation for wrongdoings and reconciliation with adversaries.

“The rice dispersal program of the office of Attorney Sinarimbo is a big help for poor Muslims observing the Ramadhan,” a Muslim preacher, Alimudin Andig Oro, said.

Sinarimbo, who previously served as BARMM Local Government Minister before his appointment last year as a member of the regional parliament by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., told reporters that, due to funding constraints, their Ramadhan rice distribution prioritizes indigent Muslim families.

Local leaders in Cotabato City and in Pahamuddin told reporters that the Ramadhan community engagements of Sinolinding and Sinarimbo are supported by BARMM Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macaua.

"To Chief Minister Macacua, we are thankful," said the 45-year-old Aminah Mursid Salik, mother of four elementary pupils and whose husband is a lowly driver of a tricycle rented on a daily basis.

Several other members of the BARMM parliament, including lawyer Jet Lim of Tawi-Tawi, as well as Maguindanaon lawmakers Rasul Enderez Esmael and Suharto Mastura Ambolodto, are also conducting separate Ramadan community service projects, which their offices launched following the start of the season on February 19.