COTABATO CITY (October 1, 2025, Wednesday) — Up to 25 poor Moro villagers in Barangay Gokoton in the newly-created Malidegao town in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic are to undergo ophthalmic surgical procedures with the help of the office of a member of the 80-seat regional parliament in the autonomous region.
Municipal and barangay officials in Malidegao told reporters on Wednesday, October 1, that the 25 eye patients are among the 211 residents of Barangay Gokotan who benefitted from an outreach mission on Tuesday, September 30, of the outreach team from the office of Member of Parliament Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., who is also serving as concurrent health minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The medical mission in Barangay Gokotan was assisted by medics from the Deseret Surgimed Hospital in Kabacan town in North Cotabato and the Ministry of Health-BARMM and peace advocates supporting the peacebuilding activities of the BARMM government in the Special Geographic Area.
The Special Geographic covers 63 barangays originally under different towns in North Cotabato province in Region 12 that are now part of the core territory of the Bangsamoro region.
Malidegao Mayor Arnal Timan and the barangay chairman in Gokotan, Jimmy Kusain, separately told reporters on Wednesday that 62 of their marginalized constituents who availed of the free medical services received free reading glasses during Tuesdayโs outreach activity by the team from Sinolindingโs office.
Both officials said more than 90 others, including grade school children, pregnant women and elderly Moro villagers were also examined then by physicians and received free medicines for common ailments.
Timan said Sinolinding, a physician-ophthalmologist trained in India, shall personally oversee the treatment soon of the 25 villagers in Barangay Gokotan, whose eyes have cataract and pterygium.
Photo shows an elderly patient undergoing eye screening during Tuesdayโs humanitarian mission of Sinolindingโs team in Barangay Gokotan.