Cotabato City (March 27, 2020) – The Bangsamoro Government’s Office of the Chief Minister (OCM-BARMM) has allotted a total of ₱155 million to the Local Government Units (LGUs) all over the Bangsamoro region in order to intensify their efforts in containing the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Each of the BARMM’s five provinces—Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi—will receive ₱5 million. Its three cities—Cotabato, Marawi and Lamitan—will receive ₱2 million each.
Meanwhile, its 116 municipalities will receive ₱1 million each, and the 63 barangays in North Cotabato will receive a total of ₱8 million.
“This is from the BARMM’s contingency fund purposely to augment the Local Quick Response Fund (QRF) of LGUs in the region to fight against the COVID-19,” said BARMM’s Interior and Local Government Minister Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo.
Meanwhile, the Bangsamoro Government, through its Bangsamoro Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READI-BARMM), has dispatched its initial assistance to two of the COVID-19 referral hospitals in the region such as the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City and Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
“We also have distributed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the men in uniform manning our checkpoints in the region and to the frontliners of Amanah Bank and Landbank of the Philippines in Cotabato City to ensure that they are safe while they continue serving our constituencies,” Sinarimbo said.
Furthermore, Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod ‘Al Haj Murad’ Ebrahim has directed the immediate construction of a facility in Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital aimed to house potential growing numbers of COVID-19 patients.
Sinarimbo said the Bangsamoro Government has already coordinated with the said hospital.
“Chief Minister Ebrahim wants it constructed as soon as possible,” Sinarimbo said. (Bureau of Public Information)
