PNP chief, BARMM leader promise peace in region

By Vince Lopez

PHILIPPINE National Police Chief General Benjamin Acorda Jr. has met with the Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, to discuss areas of cooperation that will improve the security situation in the area.

Gen. Acorda said Ebrahim’s visit last

Friday at Camp Crame in Quezon City was part of BARMM’s commitment to peace and order in the region, amid the recent incident where several police officers and soldiers were wounded in a firefight with forces under the former vice mayor of Maimbung, Sulu, Pando Mudjasan.

“It was an official visit and at the same time to renew commitment to the path of peace especially in the BARMM area. We in the PNP recognized all the mechanisms that are in place as far as the peace and order situation in the area is concerned,” Acorda said in a statement. ings or official actuations of said agency (COA),” he stressed.

“We also renewed our cooperation and active coordination. The real purpose for this is the de-escalation of hostilities in Mindanao and if possible, if we can put up some developments there without necessarily the cost of lives and other hostilities in the area,” he added.

Nonetheless, the DOJ said that COA is “the watchdog of the financial operations of the government and is tasked with the examination, audit, and settlement of all accounts pertaining to the revenues and receipts of, and expenditures, or uses of funds and property, owned or held in trust by, or pertaining to, the government or any of its subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities including government-owned and controlled corporations with original charters.”

NATIONAL SHRINE. Despite a drizzle, the faithful attend Mass at Quaipo Church in Manila on Sunday, as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has approved the elevation of the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Black Nazarene to national shrine status, making it the country’s 29th such structure.