HOLDING AREA

HOLDING AREA --- The Mandaluyong City Medical Center has set up a holding area for possible cases of 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease and other similar infectious diseases in the city. The local government units in the country, including the barangays, are also directed to come up with measures to prevent the spread of the disease, such as establishing quarantine sites as necessary. (PNA PHOTO BY JOEY O. RAZON - MINDANAO EXPOSE')

BARMM to utilize P30-B for poverty alleviation

BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Murad” Ebrahim, Al Haj (center) holding a document with DPWH Undersecretary Emil Sadain and Finance Minister Eduard Guerra. Seen right is MILG Minister Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo. (Photo supplied)

 SULTAN KUDARAT,  Maguindanao --- Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo, spokesman of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao  and concurrent Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG-BARMM), disclosed  that the new region has decided to utilize the P30-B unprogrammed funds to improve the quality of services, thereby solving poverty at the barangay level. 

        The recipient  barangays, he said, are located in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Tawi-tawi, and Sulu and some Muslim-populated towns of North Cotabato.

DepEd-12 suspends regional, school-based events due to n-CoV

GENERAL SANTOS CITY  --- The Department of Education (DepEd) in Region-12 (Soccsksargen) has suspended the scheduled regional events and school-based activities for this month in the wake of the nation-wide alert against the deadly novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019 n-CoV).

DepEd-12 Public Information Officer Anton Maganto said last February 6 that  the move is in compliance with a directive issued by their central office in response to the threat of the disease's potential spread.   CLICK ABOVE TO READ MORE .....

Maganto said the DepEd-12, in coordination with local schools and concerned stakeholders, decided to postpone the scheduled Soccsksargen Regional Athletic Association (SRAA) Meet here on February 19-23. It was rescheduled on March 1-5 but still subject to possible changes, depending on the 2019 n-CoV situation, he said.

MinDA web series to showcase Mindanao potentials

DAVAO CITY ---  The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) has set to debut a web series, starting February 9, that will highlight Mindanao’s beauty and economic strengths.

Dubbed as “The Beauty and Bounty of Mindanao,” the first episode featured the Asik-Asik Falls in Alamada, North Cotabato, which has been viewed through MinDA’s official Facebook and YouTube pages. 

The falls are known for the water that gush out of the sides of a cliff and shower the headwaters of the Libungan River in Cotabato, flowing to the vast Liguasan Marsh that covers the provinces of Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat.

SSB has new MLGOO

TURN-OVER RITES --- Outgoing Municipal Local Government Operation Officer Jennifer Ampatuan turns over pertinent documents to Edgardo “Egay” Padolina, the newly installed MLGOO of Sultan Sa Barongis. Witnessing are Municipal Administrator Danialan “Danny” B. Utap (3rd from left) and Municipal Planning and Development Council Officer Debualeg Utto. (Anne B. Acosta)

SULTAN SA BARONGIS (SSB), Maguindanao --- Edgardo “Egay” Padolina is now the Municipal Local Government Operation Officer (MLGOO) of this town following turn-over rites last February 3 held at the Datu Ramdatu M. Angas Building within the municipal government compound here.  

Outgoing  MLGOO Jennifer Ampatuan turned over official documents to Padolina in the presence of Municipal Administrator Danialan B. Utap and Municipal Planning and Development Council Officer Debualeg Utto. Also in attendance were department heads and local government staff,  Sangguniang Bayan members, and barangay chairmen and officials.

BARMM hires 1,156 teachers for Maguindanao

A group of newly hired teachers, passers of LET, gladly show their appointment papers as they go to their respective task assignments in Maguindanao. (Photo supplied)

COTABATO CITY ---- To elevate the quality of the educational system in the Bangsamoro region, the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE-BARMM) hired a total of 1,156 licensed teachers for the two districts of Maguindanao province.   

Five hundred sixty-nine (569) newly-hired elementary and secondary teachers for Maguindanao I signed their appointment and deployment orders during the BARMM’s first mass signing and oath-taking ceremony last February 6 held at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex, Bangsamoro Government Center, in Cotabato City.

BIFF, Dawlah Islamiya declared ‘persona non grata’

PERSONA NON-GRATA --- Village officials of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao have declared the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and Dawlah Islamiya terrorist group “persona non grata”  during a peace and development gathering initiated by the Army last February 9). Lt. Col. Edwin Alburo (back at photo), commander of the Army's 57th Infantry Battalion, affixes his signature on the local officials’ declaration against violent extremism. (Photo courtesy of 57th IB)

KIDAPAWAN CITY  --- Three villages in conflict-affected Datu Saudi Ampatuan (DSA) in Maguindanao declared Sunday (February 9) “persona non grata” the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and Dawlah Islamiya terrorist (DITG).

During the gathering for Community Support Program on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (CSP-PCVE), local officials of Barangays Gawang, Kitapok, and Kitango of DSA approved a joint resolution denouncing the atrocities committed by the BIFF and DITG and declaring them “persona non grata” in their communities. 

The remote areas of DSA and nearby areas near the Liguasan Marsh are frequently being harassed by the BIFF and DITG elements.

Soccsksargen PUI case cleared of n-CoV symptoms

NCOV MEASURES --- General Santos City Mayor Ronnel Rivera (right) assures that the city government, in coordination with the Department of Health and the Bureau of Quarantine, has been closely monitoring passengers arriving at the City International Airport in line with the heightened alert against the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease.The DOH says a patient is currently under investigation while nine others are being monitored in the city for the 2019-nCoV. (File photo courtesy of the city government)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY ---The first reported patient under investigation (PUI) for the novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019 n-CoV) in Soccsksargen has already recovered from earlier symptoms but remains in medical isolation. 

Editorial

Precautions amid viruses

The outbreak of the novel corona virus – acute respiratory disease, now called by the World Health Organization as COVID-19, in Wuhun, China has scared many countries because of its fast spread of contamination that prompted governments to order the lockdowns and travel ban, including the Philippines. As of this writing, there is a recorded death of 1,100 in China because of COVID-19, which was discovered by a Chinese physician, who raised the alarm but then died of such contamination.

        Now the added scary diseases --- the onslaught or another outbreak of Avian Flu or Bird’s Flu in one district in China and this lately the spread of the African Swine Fever in Mindanao, which first appeared in Northern Luzon. Now, authorities will be monitoring the migratory birds since the disease can contaminate humans, hence, the advice to make distance from the species when the outbreak is reported.