COTABATO CITY (March 18, 2026) — The police and military are now guarding extensively the entry and exit routes in this city and in nearby areas in the neighboring Bangsamoro region and in Region 12 to ensure a peaceful Eid’l Fit’r celebration by the local Muslim communities on Friday, March 20.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, announced on Wednesday that officials of the Cotabato City Police Office, led by their director, Col. Jibin Bongcayao, and Mayor Bruce Matabalao are together overseeing the Eid’l Fit’r security preparations in all of the 37 barangays under their jurisdiction.

Matabalao, now in his second term as mayor, is also chairman of the multi-sector peace and order council in Cotabato City, where the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is located.

De Guzman and Army Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, separately told reporters on Wednesday that local executives, traditional Moro datus and influential blocs of Islamic missionaries are helping push PRO-BAR and 6th ID’s Eid’l Fit’r security efforts forward.

“We are thankful to all of them, to the mayors in the cities and provinces under our jurisdiction and to their provincial governors for helping us ensure a peaceful Eid’l Fit’r celebration in Central Mindanao and in the Bangsamoro provinces,” Cagara said.

The Eid’l Fi’tr marks the culmination of the month-long Islamic Ramadhan fasting season, which started on February 19. Physically-fit Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadhan, which lasts for one lunar cycle, as a religious obligation. They focus on reparation for wrongdoings and reconciliation with adversaries during the period.

There are two important yearly religious holidays in Islam, the Eid’l Fit’r and the Eid’l Adha, also known as the feast of sacrifice, both being observed as non-working holidays in BARMM’s three cities and five provinces and in all southern regions.

Muslims converge in open fields during the morning Eid’l Fit’r congregational prayer rites.

Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, Region 12 police director, said all four governors in the provinces under their jurisdiction, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani, are also helping their units secure the designated open-field worship sites where thousands of their Muslim constituents are to converge and perform their Eid’l Fit’r rituals on Friday.

Ardiente said South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr., and his counterpart in Cotabato, Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, have instructed all of their constituent-mayors to deploy on Friday all the community watchmen under their local government units around the Eid’l Fit’r worship sites in their municipalities.

Tamayo, now in his last term as South Cotabato governor, is chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council 12.

Ardiente said Tamayo and Mendoza, who is chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12, are also both helping PRO-12 oversee its Eid’l Fit’r security preparations in four cities in Region 12, Kidapawan, Tacurong, Koronadal and General Santos where there are big Muslim communities.

Photo shows policemen guarding a strategic stretch of a highway in Cotabato City as part of the Eid’l Fi’tr security preparations of PRO-BAR.