COTABATO CITY (January 15, 2026) — Chairpersons of 10 barangay governments in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Tuesday, January 13, surrendered 11 firearms and grenade projectiles to local executives, for merchants a strong boost to cross-section efforts of creating a good investment climate in the municipality.
Datu Odin Sinsuat, covering 34 barangays and where the Cotabato Airport and Camp Siongco, the command center of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division is located, is just a few kilometers south of Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Wednesday that the firearms and explosives that barangay officials turned in on Tuesday are now in their custody.
There is a strong Moro culture on possession of firearms, both as status symbols and for protection from adversaries.
Other barangay officials in Datu Odin Sinsuat have notified their mayor, Abdulmain Abas, and vice mayor, Bobsteel Sinsuat, of their intention to also surrender to both of them their unlicensed firearms in support of the multi-sector law-enforcement operations of their local government unit.
De Guzman and Maguindanao del Norte’s police director, Col. Victor Rito, separately said they appreciate the voluntary surrender by the 10 barangay officials, during a symbolic rite at the municipal government center in Datu Odin Sinsuat, of bolt-action sniper rifles, 9 millimeter machine pistols, .38 caliber revolvers and 40 millimeter grenade projectiles.
“That gesture complements our effort to improve the image of the municipality as a potential destination for capitalists from outside who can put up capital-intensive businesses in the area,” said the lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid Dimacisil Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, which has members in all five provinces and three cities in BARMM.
Members of the Chinese Business Chamber in Cotabato City, among them owners of two big hardware stores in the city proper, said they are glad with the extensive cooperation of Abas and Sinsuat, their constituent Muslim, Christian and non-Moro Teduray community leaders and the personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, presently under Lt. Col. Madin, in maintaining law and order in the municipality.
There has not been any shooting incident in Datu Odin Sinsuat since the last week of September 2025, a feat that officials of PRO-BAR and the 6th ID attribute to its local government unit’s direct involvement now in maintaining law and order in all of the 34 barangays under its jurisdiction.
“The continuously improving security situation now in Datu Odin Sinsuat is like a `magnet’ that we use to attract investors from outside to put up viable businesses in the area,” Torres said.
Photo shows the firearms surrendered by the barangay officials in Datu Odin Sinsuat to their mayor and vice mayor and police officials.
