COTABATO CITY (Thursday, August 28, 2025) — Villagers from across the now peaceful Tuburan town in Basilan benefitted from an extensive day-long outreach mission of the office of Gov. Mujiv Hataman on Wednesday.

Radio reports on Thursday, August 28, stated that the activity, dubbed Raayat Day, was planned by Hataman, meant to maximize the delivery of services to the communities in the island province.

Villagers in Tuburan had availed of free medical and dental services by a multi-sector Raayat Day contingent that Hataman organized.

School children were also provided with school bags and meals during the event while men had free haircut by personnel of the Army’s 18th Infantry Battalion of the 101st Infantry Brigade.

The provincial government’s outreach team also provided villagers with hygiene kits. A number of them had been registered by the Raayat Day contingent with the Philhealth, the country’s health insurance outfit, as part of the activity.

The provincial government had also distributed fruit tree and coconut seedlings to villagers from across Tuburan, one of the 11 towns in Basilan, which also has two cities, Lamitan and Isabela.

Municipal officials, among them Mayor Durie Kallahal, told reporters on Thursday that many of their constituents also received from Hataman’s public service group edible plant seeds and fertilizer to enable them to do gardening in their yards.

Hataman, elected as provincial governor during the May 12, 2025 elections, said he will replicate the Raayat Day activity in other parts of Basilan soon.

Hataman was former congressional representative of Basilan and had also served as regional governor, from 2010 to 2019, of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The ARMM, established in the early 1990s, was replaced with a more empowered Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2019, a product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The Raayat Day activity in Tuburan was assisted by the 101st Infantry Brigade and units of the Basilan Provincial Police Office led by Col. Cerrazid Umabong.

Photo shows Kallahal, the mayor of Tuburan, distributing food to children during the Raayat Day in the municipality.