Labor agreements inked in BARMM – BusinessWorld Online
COTABATO CITY — Regional officials, employers, representatives from the labor and business sectors from across the Bangsamoro region have crafted resolutions to cooperate on special welfare and health programs for workers to boost their safety in workplaces and hasten their productivity.
The agreements, forged during the 2025 Bangsamoro Labor Summit and Tripartite Industrial Peace Council Convention in Cotabato City, were signed by officials led by Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin G. Sema, members of the Bangsamoro Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, representatives from the business and labor sectors and humanitarian organizations in the autonomous region.
Officials of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MoLE-BARMM), led by Mr. Sema, and BARMM’s Chief Minister Abdulraof A. Macacua organized the summit as a venue for dialogues on how to further improve cross-section cooperation on interventions meant to boost the welfare of the region’s labor sector and enhance the relationship among workers and their employers.
“The summit was a multisector activity. It was productive. It was capped off with our signing of agreements good for the region’s labor sector, employers and traders who have establishments employing local residents,” Mr. Sema told reporters on Sunday.
Apart from those in mainland Mindanao, traders and labor sector representatives from BARMM’s geographically separated Basilan and Tawi-Tawi island provinces also attended the summit, held at the Al Nor Convention Center in uptown Cotabato City at the weekend.
In a message, Maria Jenellyn P. Aguinaldo, Philippine project manager of the International Labour Organization (ILO), told summit attendees that the ILO will support all of MoLE-BARMM’s programs for the region’s labor sector.
The sectoral representatives who participated in the summit also pledged to help address child labor in far-flung areas in BARMM and the use of children as combatants by their own families that are involved in deadly clan wars. — John Felix M. Unson
