A physician born and raised in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), officially retired today, August 8, 2025, from a high post in the central office of the Department of Health.

The now retired DOH Undersecretary Abdullah Dumama, Jr. started as a “doctor to the barrio” and, about 36 years ago, or thereabouts, served as municipal health officer in Upi, an upland town in Maguindanao del Norte some 40 kilometers away from Cotabato City.

He had also worked as chief health officer in Cotabato City, which has 36 barangays, home to mixed Muslims, Christians and non-Moro indigenous people.

At that time, one of his best friends, the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., was also serving thousands of Moro and non-Moro villagers, as a public health worker, in the adjoining Datu Montawal and Pagalungan towns in Maguindanao del Sur.

Dumama had also worked as regional director of DOH-12 prior to his appointment as a national health undersecretary.

Sinolinding, a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, is also presently functioning, in concurrent capacity, as BARMM’s regional health minister, covering the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.

Friends since the 1990s, Dumama, most known in Central Mindanao by his nickname Okang, and Sinolinding are both popular for their common advocacy — that of promoting consciousness, among Mindanao’s Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities, of the importance of proper nutrition for good health.

“We are hoping to see him around, working as a private physician,” Sinolinding told reporters on Friday, August 8.

Two key officials of the BARMM government — the region’s chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua and Regional Labor Secretary Muslimin Sema — and Cotabato City’s mayor, Mohammad Ali “Bruce” Matabalao, separately told reporters on Friday that they are proud about Dumama’s having served Filipinos as a government physician.

“Most importantly, besides his public service exploits, he is a Cotabateño. That also sounds pretty good,” said Matabalao, elected chief executive in Cotabato City, the seat of the now five-year BARMM government, which is a product of 22 years of peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF.

Macacua, also a senior MILF official, and Sema, who is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, had separately told reporters that among the patients treated by Dumama while a community doctor in Upi in Maguindanao del Norte and as Cotabato City health, were hundreds of MILF and MNLF members and their dependents.

“For that, we are thankful. We wish him good health, more time for continuous public service in private capacity,” Sema, a former mayor in Cotabato City, said.

Photo shows Dumama (right) and Sinolinding together at the health minister’s office in the BARMM regional capitol in Cotabato City. (August 8, 2025, Cotabato City, Bangsamoro Region)