With little to no savings, unemployment, and reduced food subsidies during the Holy Month of Ramadan, many families in Cotabato City are severely impacted by lockdowns caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

“We emphatize with you and our hope is whatever little assistance the Bangsamoro Government, your government, is able to provide you in this trying times will ease your burden,” said said Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo, Bangsamoro government’s interior and local government minister and head of READi.

This, after 12,895 families from seven villages in Cotabato City received food assistance from the Bangsamoro Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READi) under the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) during the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2, 2021.

“We continue to provide assistance to our needy constituents in Cotabato City and in some other parts of the homeland,” the minister said, adding that the beneficiaries are the “people who truly deserve our assistance.”

The beneficiaries, who each received food packs containing rice, canned goods and coffee, are from the barangays of Rosary Heights 1, Rosary Heights 7, Bagua 1, Poblacion 2, Poblacion 3, Poblacion 7, and Poblacion 9.