More than a hundred Tausug boys were circumcised and 127 eye patients from across three towns in Sulu province were treated free via a special program of the Bangsamoro health ministry.
Radio reports in Central Mindanao on Saturday morning, June 7, quoted provincial officials as saying that the medical mission early this week in Parang, Panamao and Luuk was part of the newly-launched Oplan Serbisyong Angkop sa Mamamayan (OplanSAM) of the Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
BARMM officials told reporters on Saturday that the OplanSAM activity in the three towns in Sulu was managed together by the region’s health health minister, the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., and personnel of the health ministry in the island province.
The OplanSAM is being implemented together in the autonomous region by the office of Regional Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua and the MOH-BARMM.
“OplanSAM provides the poor residents of the Bangsamoro region with free medical services, including circumcision, cyst excision, cataract and other eye surgeries, thyroidectomy, herniorrhaphy, obstetrics-gynecologic surgical and orthopedic procedures,” Sinolinding, an eye surgeon trained in India, said.
A total of 142 Tausug boys from different barangays in Parang, Panamao and Luuk were circumcised for free by medical teams that facilitated the OplanSAM in the three towns, according to Sulu provincial MOH-BARMM officials.
In a printed matrix released to reporters on Friday, June 6, Sinolinding’s office at the BARMM capitol in Cotabato City stated that 127 elderly Tausugs underwent minor eye surgeries during the three-day Oplan SAM activities in the three towns.
Health workers also distributed during the outreach missions more than 300 reading glasses to villagers belonging to marginalized families. (June 7, 2025, JFU, in Cotabato City)