DXCM AM RADYO UKAY

Basilan leaders, BARMM chief intensify peacebuilding cooperation

The vice governor of Basilan and the chief minister of the Bangsamoro region have agreed to continue cooperating in sustaining the peace now spreading around the island province, declared early this year as totally cleared from the presence of the Abu Sayyaf terror group.

Basilan Vice Gov. Hadjiman Salliman, who had served as governor of the province for three consecutive terms before he was elected vice governor during the May 12, 2025 elections, is the presiding chairperson of their Sangguniang Panlalawigan, or Basilan's provincial board, which legislates ordinances enforceable in the two cities and 11 towns in the province.

Salliman had told Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua, during their meeting in this city on Monday, June 1, that he and members of their Sangguniang Panlalawigan are committed to help the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao achieve its peace and community-empowerment agenda for Basilan's 11 towns and two cities.

While at the Bangsamoro regional capitol in Cotabato City on Monday, Salliman and Macacua agreed to expand the partnership of Basilan's Sangguniang Panlalawigan and the BARMM government in keeping the peace now in all areas in Basilan.

The police and military jointly declared Basilan early this year as totally free, liberated from the Abu Sayyaf terror group that once ruled with impunity in isolated areas in the province.

Macacua said the feat was achieved through the joint peace and security efforts of local executives, units in the province of the military's Western Mindanao Command, the Basilan Provincial Police Office and leaders of the Abu Sayyaf who got reintegrated into the local communities after they surrendered, in batches, and reformed for good.

Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman, a former regional governor of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which got replaced with a more empowered BARMM in 2019, had also amicably settled, through dialogues, more than 10 deadly “rido,” or clan wars, in the province since his election to office last year.

Macacua, figurehead of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, said he and officials of all agencies under him are grateful to Salliman and the members of their Sangguniang Panlalawigan and to Hataman, chairperson of the Basilan Provincial Peace and Order Council, for their renewed commitment to help push forward the regional government's peacebuilding initiatives in Basilan, one of the five provinces in the autonomous region.

BARMM also has three cities, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where its regional capitol is located.

“Cooperation in governance among all leaders in the autonomous region is a strong force that can help us achieve our common goal of fostering peace and progress in all five provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” Macacua said.

The five provincial governors in BARMM, Hataman of Basilan, Mamintal Adiong, Jr. of Lanao del Sur, Ali Midtimbang of Maguindanao del Sur, Tucao Mastura of Maguindanao del Norte and Ysmael Ali of Tawi-Tawi each assured last month of their support to all programs of the BARMM government, aiming to boost peace and progress in the autonomous region, via interfaith and cultural solidarity among its Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro residents.

Photo shows Hadjiman Salliman (left) and Macacua sharing a light moment after their meeting in Cotabato City last Monday, June 1. (JUNE 4, 2026)

BARMM folks glad with 2 US-trained musicians from local clans

Residents of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are excited about the June 21 piano and violin concert in the University of the Philippines-Diliman of two scions of big clans in BARMM, both trained abroad.

The pianist Jenna Datumanong Salliman and the violinist Adrian Nicolas Chio Ong shall together perform in their Espressivo Concert on June 21 at the Kolehiyo ng Arte at Literatura Theater in UP-Diliman, officials of different agencies in BARMM announced on Wednesday morning, June 3.

“We are proud of these two young musicians, both from big families in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” Myrah Borja Mangkabung, superintendent of the Basilan Schools Division, told reporters in BARMM on Wednesday.

Jeanne, the mother of the violinist Ong, 26, from the big Chio clan, whose members are residing in Cotabato City, the capital of BARMM, and in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao del Sur, one of the five provinces in the BARMM.

Ong’s father, Allan, and her mother are both dentists, operating a dental clinic in Quezon City.

Annie, the mother of the 26-year-old pianist Salliman, is daugther the late Simeon Ampatuan Datumanong, an ethnic Maguindanaon, who had served as chairman of the defunct Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook 12 in Cotabato City, as in-charge of the Office on Muslim Affairs and, subsequently, as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Datumanong was also congressional representative of the still undivided Maguindanao province before he passed away from an illness about two decades ago.

Salliman's father, Hadjiman, who is of Yakan descent, is the incumbent vice governor of Basilan. He was governor of the island province for three consecutive terms prior to his election to his present post during the May 12, 2025 elections.

Traditional Moro datus in Maguindanao del Sur's adjoining Ampatuan and Shariff Aguak towns, related by blood to Salliman, told reporters on Wednesday that they are so proud of her.

“Her being a pianist trained in the United States is a proof that residents of the Bangsamoro region are just as competitive, in music, arts and sciences and in other fields with those in other non-Moro regions in the country,” said Anwar Kuit Emblawa, a ranking staff of the Office of the Municipal Mayor in Shariff Aguak.

Her relatives in Cotabato City said on Wednesday that the US-trained pianist Salliman was recently admitted to the Chautauqua Piano Institute in New York as a scholar of the National Society of Arts and Letters in the US, a non-stock, non-profit entity supporting potential artists pursuing professional education in music and arts.

Ong, after graduating from the Philippine High School for the Arts in Los Baños, Laguna, studied music and arts at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where he graduated with honors.

“We are mighty proud of him and Jenna Datumanong Salliman, who are from pioneer clans in what is now the Bangsamoro region,” said Alexander Chio Mabinay, a member of the technical service team in the office in Cotabato City of BARMM parliament member Romeo Kabuntalan Sema, who is also from a noble Moro clan.

Two members of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, Ishak Veloso Mastura and Zulfikar-Ali Sergio Bayam, both Maguindanaon datus, separately said the young musicians Salliman and Ong deserve special honors from the region's lawmaking body, which is based in Cotabato City.

Photo shows the violinist Chio Ong and pianist Salliman, both from big pioneer clans in the Bangsamoro region. (June 4, 2026)

ALAMIN: Mga bata sa Barangay Tamped may ayudang school supplies

Mahigit 100 na mga bata ang tumanggap ng mga school supplies, raincoats at bigas sa magkatuwang na outreach mission ng dalawang miyembro ng Bangsamoro parliament sa Barangay Tamped sa bayan ng Old Kaabacan sa probinsya ng Cotabato nitong Martes, May 26.

Ipinaabot sa mga reporters nitong Sabado, May 30, ni Francisco Saliling, barangay chairman ng Tamped, na 116 na mga batang etnikong Menufu-Aromanen at mga Moro, mula sa mga mahirap na pamilya, ang tumanggap ng mga school supplies, raincoats, mga toothbrush at toothpaste sa naturang relief mission ng dalawang miyembro ng Bangsamoro parliament, sina Froilyn Mendoza at ang doctor na si Kadil Sinolinding, Jr.

Ayon kay Barangay Chairman Saliling, malaking bilang din ng mga residente ng Tamped na may mga problema sa mata at iba pang mga karamdaman ang nasuri din noon ng libre at nabigyan ng mga gamot ng magkasanib na medical teams mula sa tanggapan ni Sinolinding sa parliament, sa Deseret Surgimed Hospital sa Kabacan, Cotabato, at sa Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, mas kilala bilang MoH-BARMM. Si Sinolinding ang siya ring namamahala, bilang minister, ng MoH-BARMM.

Mismong si Mendoza, isa sa mga leaders ng etnikong Teduray community sa mga probinsya ng Maguindanao del Norte at Maguindanao del Sur, ang nanguna sa pamimigay ng school supplies sa mga kabataang mag-aaral sa Barangay Tamped, at ng bigas para sa kanilang mga pamilya.

Tumulong sina Barangay Chairman Saliling, si Old Kaabacan Mayor Tonicks Enalang at ang health workers ng kanilang local government unit sa pagsagawa ng public service activity nila Mendoza at Sinolinding sa Barangay Tamped, ayon sa ulat ng kawani ng kanilang mga tanggapan sa parliament sa BARMM regional capitol sa Cotabato City. Suportado din ni BARMM Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua ang naturang outreach mission, ayon kina Sinolinding at Mendoza.

Makikita sa larawan si Bangsamoro parliament member Mendoza at isang batang Menefu-Aromanen na kabilang sa mga tumanggap ng ayudang school supplies at isang pasyenteng sinusuri ng manggagamot na kasama sa medical outreach team ng tanggapan ni Sinolinding, isang physician ophthalmogist na nagpakadalubhasa sa India. (May 30, 2026)