Eid’l al-Adha celebration in BARMM solemn, peaceful

May 27, 2026 | 4:56pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Eid'l al-Adha open-field congregational worship rites early Wednesday, May 27, by Muslims in Central Mindanao were peaceful, where preachers talked about the need for interfaith solidarity to boost efforts of addressing underdevelopment in the local communities.

The different venue of the religious event was secured by police and soldiers, mostly Christians.

Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Wednesday that the traditional outdoor Eid’l al-Adha gatherings in areas under their jurisdiction went on smoothly, facilitated with the help of local executives and their constituent Moro leaders.

Thousands of worshipers attended the outdoor Eid’l al-Adha activities in the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Cotabato City and in school campuses and mosques around.

Muslim personnel of the 6th ID and members of their families performed Eid’l al-Adha rites at a worship site close to Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

Clerics called on worshippers gathered in different areas to adhere to Islamic preachings on respect for religions and promotion of religious solidarity among Muslims and non-Muslims.

In his Eid’l al-Adha message forwarded to reporters early Wednesday, Maguindanao del Norte’s vice governor, Marshall Sinsuat, encouraged his constituents in the province and the residents of his hometown, the seaside Datu Blah Sinsuat, to continue supporting the police, the military and the BARMM government’s joint peacebuilding programs meant to foster interfaith cohesion among the Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities in Central Mindanao.

“Ecumenism and patience and tolerance are what we need to spread in our communities while we do our best to sustain the peace and sustainable development now taking off in our province,” Sinsuat said.

He said he is grateful to all the Muslim and Christian community leaders in Datu Blah Sinsuat for setting good examples on how to set aside religious and cultural barriers to achieve co-existence in their barangays.

Datu Blah Sinsuat, touted as the most peaceful from among the 12 towns in Maguindanao del Norte, has 13 seaside barangays, home to mixed Muslim Maguindanaons and non-Moro ethnic Tedurays and Christian settlers.

Eid’l al-Adha, also known as the feast of sacrifice, is one of the two important holidays in Islam. The other is the Eid’l al-Fit'r, or the culmination of the Ramadan fasting season, where physically-fit Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for one lunar cycle, or from between 28 to 30 days based on the Islamic Hirah lunar-based calendar, as a religious obligation and as reparation for wrongdoings.