COTABATO CITY (Saturday, September 6, 2025) — Japan has provided the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao some P600 million worth of of heavy equipment for infrastructure development, calamity mitigation and disaster response operations in all of the five provinces and three cities under its jurisdiction.

Japan had actively supported the tedious peace talks, which lasted for two decades, between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that resulted in the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered BARMM. Several agencies under the Bangsamoro regional government are being managed together by officials of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front.

Japan’s ambassador to the Philippines, Endo Kazuya, personally turned over the heavy equipment on Friday, September 5, to officials of the BARMM government, led by Assistant Senior Minister Abdullah Cusain and the director-general of the Bangsamoro public works ministry, Engineer Danilo Ong in a symbolic rite at the regional capitol in uptown Cotabato City.

The grant consisted of 75 heavy equipment, including dump trucks, carrier trucks, payloaders, excavators, aquatic plant harvesters, large drilling machines and mobile high-pressure air compressors.

Kazuya said the BARMM government can use the heavy equipment from their government for development initiatives and emergency response missions.

“It’s an honor for us to work with the people in the Bangsamoro region for peace and development. Japan has been steadfast in helping foster peace and development in the Bangsamoro region,” Kazuya told reporters at the sideline of Friday’s event at the BARMM capitol.

He said the governments of Japan and the Philippines are cooperating in fostering peace and sustainable development in the Bangsamoro region.

In separate messages during the turnover ceremony, Cosain and Ong separately thanked Japan for providing the BARMM government with costly heavy equipment needed for projects meant to boost the region’s economic growth that can catalyze lasting peace in all the five provinces and three cities in the autonomous region.

The now five-year BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.

Photo shows BARMM officials and Kazuya inspecting one of the payloaders Japan donated to the Bangsamoro regional government.