COTABATO CITY (September 20, 2025) — Two Filipino lawyers, one of them from the Bangsamoro region, participated in a conference of prosecutors from 10 Southeast Asian countries in Indonesia early this week where they forged a compact binding their governments to cooperate in addressing cross-border crimes.
Radio reports on Saturday, September 20, in Cotabato City stated that the Philippines was represented to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Prosecutors and Attorneys General Meeting (APAGM) in Bali, Indonesia last Monday, September 15, by Prosecutor-General Richard Anthony Fadullon and Mohammad Mon-Em Imam Abangad, who is provincial prosecutor in Maguindanao del Sur province.
Maguindanao del Sur is one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
State prosecutors and attorneys general from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam signed in Bali the Sanur Bali Declaration, which compels the governments of the ten states to fuse ranks and together address illegal transnational such as unpermitted online gambling, financial scams and money laundering ang cross-border smuggling.
Fadullon and Abangad had both assured to disseminate, via the media, the contents of the Sanur Bali Declaration, crafted on Monday, the second day of the four-day APGM in Bali.
Abangad had initially provided reporters in Cotabato City with initial insights about the Sanur Bali Declaration.
BARMM’s chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, and members of the 80-seat parliament in the autonomous region separately told reporters on Saturday that they shall willingly help push the objectives of the Sanur Bali Declaration Forward.
Macacua, as BARMM’s chief minister, is also chairman of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council in the autonomous region.
Officials of Bangsamoro agencies, including the regional government’s local government and public order and safety ministries, said they will help Abangad and Fadullon educate residents of the autonomous region on the intricacies of the Sanur Bali Declaration.
Photo shows Fadullon and Abangad at the venue of the four-day conference of state prosecutors and attorneys general from 10 Southeast Asian countries. (September 20, 2025)