A big group of villagers in Barangay Simone in the newly-created Old Kabacan town in Cotabato province benefitted from a medical mission of Bangsamoro regional officials on Tuesday, August 5.

Local executives in the fledgling Old Kaabacan municipality told reporters on Wednesday, August 6, that they are thankful to the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Abdulrauf Macacua, and a member of the regional parliament, the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., for facilitating the humanitarian mission.

The activity was part of Macacua’s Serbisyong Angkop sa Mamayan, or Project SAM, which is being implemented by a team from the office of the regional lawmaker Sinolinding, who is also functioning as BARMM’s health minister in concurrent capacity.

Barangay leaders had told reporters that 23 from the 78 Project SAM beneficiaries, mostly elderly Moro villagers residing in Barangay Simone, have cataract and pterygium and had been scheduled for surgery by eye specialists at the Deseret Surgimed Hospital in Barangay Kayaga in Kabacan, Cotabato.

Old Kaabakan municipal officials said 36 of the 78 patients examined by a medical team from Sinolinding’s office last Tuesday each received free reading glasses supplied by his office.

Three other villagers were given medicines for various illnesses, according to municipal officials. (August 6, 2025, Old Kaabacan, Cotabato Province, Central Mindanao)