COTABATO CITY — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Bangsamoro Health Ministry forged a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to set up an FDA service facility in the region.

The FDA, which is under the Department of Health (DoH), facilitates the regulation of drugs, health products, food supplements, processed chemicals for agricultural and household use.

Its functions and powers are not devolved to the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The MoA was signed by Paolo S. Teston, director-general of FDA, BARMM Health Minister Kadil M. Sinolinding, Jr. and the chief of their legal and legislative office, the Jeihan Jein M. Gulo, during a symbolic rite on Thursday morning at the Bangsamoro regional capitol in Cotabato City.

Health Undersecretary Abdullah B. Dumama, Jr. from the DoH central office, Christian Lei M. Saquilabon, DoH assistant secretary representing the department’s regulation facility development cluster, and Abdulhalik M. Kasim, regional assistant secretary in the Ministry of Health-BARMM, stood as witnesses to the crafting of the MoA.

Mr. Sinolinding, Mr. Dumama, a former regional director of DoH-12, and Mr. Teston separately told reporters that the setting up of an FDA office in BARMM will benefit the region’s Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities.

“Potential clients do not have to go to the office of the FDA in Metro Manila anymore for their transactions,” Mr. Sinolinding said.

BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where its regional government operations center is located.

Mr. Dumama said the setting up of an FDA office in BARMM will boost the health programs of the Bangsamoro government, whose chief minister, Abdulrauf A. Macacua, is also a figurehead of the region’s 80-seat regional parliament. — John Felix M. Unson