COTABATO CITY (June 4, 2026) — 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 Salliman and Macacua sharing a light moment after their meeting in Cotabato City on Monday, June 1. [][][]
