COTABATO CITY — Two medical institutions in Central Mindanao — the Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital in Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao del Norte and the Doctor Ramon Pesante Clinic & Hospital in Libungan in Cotabato — had received funds from the office of a Bangsamoro regional lawmaker, earmarked for bills of marginalized patients from barangays in the autonomous region.

Physicians in both hospitals told reporters on Monday, August 18, that the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, a member of the 80-seat parliament in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), personally turned over to them last week the checks for the grants.

Sinarimbo’s office had provided the Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital, via its chief, the physician Ibrahim Pangato, Jr., P1 million and the Doctor Ramon Pesante Clinic & Hospital, P500,000.

The humanitarian initiative is in support of the Bangsamoro Health Outreach Program for Everyone, or B-HOPE, of the Ministry of Health-BARMM.

Sinarimbo, who had served as local government minister of BARMM prior to his appointment as member of the regional parliament in March this year by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and BARMM’s health minister, the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., are cooperating in health care programs for poor Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities in Bangsamoro barangays in Central Mindanao.

Pangato, who also has charitable activities in impoverished Moro communities, said the monetary assistance entrusted to them by Sinarimbo is a big help for the medication of patients in their hospital and other procedural treatments they need to undergo to hasten their recovery from their illnesses.

Sinarimbo said he is grateful to Sinolinding and BARMM’s chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, for supporting the pro-poor projects of his office.

Photo shows Sinarimbo turning over the checks for the humanitarian fund allocations to officials of the Cotabato Sanitarium Hospital and the Doctor Ramon Pesante Clinic & Hospital during simple handover rites last week. (August 18, 2025, Cotabato City, Bangsamoro Region)