COTABATO CITY (August 15, 2025) —The International Labour Organization of the United Nations and the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are to intensify cooperation in programs meant to empower BARMM’s labor sector.

ILO’s representative to the Philippines, Khalid Hassan, and Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema met on Thursday, August 14, in Cotabato City and talked about continuing their common efforts in addressing child labor in BARMM and partnership in improving the working skills of domestic laborers.

The ILO’s office in Cotabato, the MoLE-BARMM, the administration of Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, and local executives in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces had jointly rescued and re-enrolled in schools 624 child laborers in the past 24 months.

Matabalao’s office also has projects ensuring the welfare of the labor sector in Cotabato City, which is BARMM’s regional capital.

“We shall provide you with support for the development of the labor sector in the region,” Hassan, a Pakistani, told Sema during their meeting at MoLE-BARMM’s office at the Bangsamoro capitol in Cotabato City.

Sema and Hassan also talked about the need to establish, with the help of foreign benefactors, a technical employment-generation mechanism in the autonomous region.

Sema told Hassan then that MoLE-BARMM has locally-funded programs on labor force skills development to boost the ministry’s job placement initiatives.

Hassan and Sema, who is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front that has a peace agreement with Malacañang, also discussed the need to put up a data management system in identifying and recording the skills of overseas workers to hasten programs intended to easily connect them to potential employers.

Photo shows Sema giving a small Kris as token to Hassan during their meeting in Cotabato City. (August 15, 2025, Cotabato City, Bangsamoro Region)