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John Unson - Philstar.com
April 7, 2026 | 6:33pm
Officials turned over on Monday, April 6, 2026, the keys to the rooms in the newly-established leprosy treatment center in Sultan Kudarat Maguindanao del Norte.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Sectoral representatives and health workers together launched on Monday, April 6, a modern and bigger leprosy custodial facility in the compound of the Cotabato Sanitarium and General Hospital in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao del Norte.
The new leprosy custodial facility in the CotSanGen Hospital in Barangay Pinaring in Sultan Kudarat, one of the 12 towns in Maguindanao del Norte province, is the first ever in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
It was launched on Monday morning, in the presence of patients, by the medical service and administrative personnel of the CotSanGen Hospital, led by their medical center chief, the physician Ibrahim Pangato Jr.
Representatives from the local communities, the municipal administrator of Sultan Kudarat, Sultan Banjo Mampon and a staff of Maguindanao del Norte Rep. Dimple Mastura, Joesan Pacaldo, were also present in the event.
The physician Pangato said they spent P3.4 million for the construction of the leprosy custodial facility, drawn from the coffer of the CotSanGen Hospital.
All physicians, health workers and the administrative employees of the CotSanGen Hospital cooperated in constructing the leprosy custodial facility, according to Pangato.
“To all of them, we are very grateful," Pangato told reporters at the sideline of Monday’s symbolic launching event at the compound of the CotSanGen Hospital compound in an upland area in Barangay Pinaring, some seven kilometers north of Cotabato City, the regional capital of BARMM.
What is now the CotSanGen Hospital started as a small leprosarium built by government doctors in the same area after World War 2 in the 1940s.
It had makeshift shelters then, made of indigenous materials obtained from the surroundings, for persons afflicted with leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease.
The obsolete leprosarium eventually evolved into what is now the modern CotSanGen Hospital that has large buildings, a pathological laboratory, an xray and ultrasound imaging facilities, wards for patients afflicted with various illnesses and an infant delivery unit manned by obstetrician-gynecologists.
Pangato, who has been overseeing the hospital since 2015, said they are also thankful to the local government unit of Sultan Kudarat, to Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Tucao Mastura and Vice Gov. Marshall Sinsuat, to the congressional representative of the province, Dimple Mastura, and the health ministry of BARMM for helping them push their community health services programs forward.
Monday’s launching of the leprosy custodial facility was capped off with the release of the keys to its rooms to patients being treated by CotSanGen Hospital medical practitioners.
