Ampatuan’s first appointees were Datu Sajid Druz Ali as agriculture secretary, and lawyers Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi and Datu Ishak Mastura as regional solicitor-general and trade secretary, respectively. The three are still in their 30s.
Born on Feb. 20, 1971, Druz Ali is a grandson of the late Hadji Datu Druz Ali, the pioneering mayor of Palembang, the oldest town in Sultan Kudarat.
Druz Ali began his work as ARMM agriculture secretary immediately after Ampatuan signed his appointment.
Mastura, born on Oct. 22, 1971, studied international petroleum trade laws in Scotland.
Mastura’s father, lawyer-historian Michael Mastura, was a former congressman of the first district of Maguindanao.
Guiani-Sayadi is a daughter of the late Regional Trial Court Judge Guiapal Guiani Sr., who was a commissioner of the Commission on Elections in the 1990s.
Born on June 8, 1968, Guiani-Sayadi was a popular student-leader in Central Mindanao during her college days. She is a practicing human rights and election lawyer.
Guiani-Sayadi, Mastura and Druz Ali are all scions of different royal clans in Maguindanao.
Ampatuan, who is only 38, said he selected the three based on their qualifications and capability to manage the offices entrusted to them.
Fully devolved by the national government, the ARMM’s trade and agriculture departments are the region’s busiest in terms of improving the productivity of marginalized sectors.
The ARMM solicitor-general acts as the primary legal adviser of the governor on public governance.
Ampatuan merely reappointed Mastura, who also served as regional trade secretary for three years under former Gov. Parouk Hussin, whose term ended last Sept. 30.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita swore Ampatuan and Vice Gov. Ansarudin Adiong into office last Sept. 30.