Maguindanao del Norte town now 'drug-free'

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February 18, 2026 | 7:08pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Influential business blocs were elated with the grant on Monday, February 16, by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency of a special citation to the local government unit of the most peaceful town in Maguindanao del Norte for being totally free from presence of traffickers of narcotics.

Edgar Jubay, director of the PDEA-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and his subordinates delivered then to the office of Mayor Raida Tomawis-Sinsuat of Datu Blah Sinsuat the Balangay Seal of Excellence, as a tacit recognition of their municipality’s being “absolutely drug free,” based on standards of the agency.

Covering 13 beachfront barangays, Datu Blah Sinsuat is located in the west of Maguindanao del Norte province, one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, told reporters on Wednesday that PDEA-BARMM’s grant of a Balangay Seal of Excellence to the Datu Blah Sinsuat local government unit is a big boost to their efforts of helping local officials harness the investment potentials of the municipality.

The Torres-led BBC has members in BARMM's five provinces and three cities and acts like a conduit between the Bangsamoro Board of Investments of the regional autonomous government and business organizations in different regions and abroad.

Datu Blah Sinsuat, one of the 12 towns in Maguindanao del Norte, is touted as the fishing capital of the province.

“That special citation is like a magnet we can use to connect investors from outside to local officials in Datu Blah Sinsuat for them to plan out together potential businesses in the area,” Torres told reporters.

Senior officials of the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region separately confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that Datu Blah Sinsuat did not have any heinous crime incident since BARMM’s creation in 2019, replacing the then 27-year less empowered Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Datu Blah Sinsuat police force had only recorded fistfights among drunk villagers, quarrels among women due to gossip and complaints about stolen chickens of farmers during the period.

“Our contacts outside of the Bangsamoro region and abroad are keen on learning first about the security situation in areas where we tell them to put up businesses,” Torres said.

Datu Blah Sinsuat, whose municipal capital is Barangay Pura, only about 30 kilometers from Cotabato City, the capital of BARMM, is home to mixed Maguindanaon Muslim and non-Moro predominantly Christian ethnic Teduray communities.

Maguindanao del Norte Vice Gov. Marshall Sinsuat, a senior member of the multi-sector peace and order council in the province, had served as mayor of Datu Blah Sinsuat before he was elected vice governor during the May 12, 2025 elections.

Officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and PRO-BAR said the LGU of Datu Blah Sinsuat had resolved a number of family feuds involving local clans while the now vice governor Sinsuat was mayor of the municipality.

“We have so much to tell prospective investors about the viability of venturing into capital-intensive businesses in Datu Blah Sinsuat,” the lawyer Jet Lim, a member and spokesperson of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, also a businessman, said.

Members of the Cotabato City Chinese Business Chamber were quoted in radio reports on Wednesday as saying that they were elated with PDEA-BARMM’s grant of a Balangay Seal of Excellence to the Datu Blah Sinsuat LGU, which so essential in proving to potential investors that there is peace and calm in the municipality.