BARMM execs recognize ex-chief minister’s peace, governance achievements

COTABATO CITY — Three senior Bangsamoro officials, including the figurehead of the Moro National Liberation Front, welcomed the new chief minister and praised his predecessor for pioneering public service initiatives for the Muslim, Christian, and indigenous communities in the autonomous region.

Kadil Sinolinding Jr., health minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, and Transportation and Communications Minister Paisalin Pangandaman Tago, separately told reporters on Wednesday, March 12, that they are confident their new chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, will lead the BARMM government in line with the "moral governance policy" that its still-developing agencies are working to institutionalize.

The BARMM was established in 2019, following 22 years of peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, replacing the 27-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which had less administrative and political power.

Macacua was appointed as BARMM chief minister last week by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., succeeding Ahod Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF, who held the position for five years. Macacua is the head of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces-MILF and was the governor of Maguindanao del Norte before his appointment as regional chief minister.

Sinolinding, Sema and Tago also expressed their commitment to supporting Macacua’s peacebuilding programs, aimed at strengthening the national government’s diplomatic efforts with southern Moro communities.

“We are thanking former Chief Minister Ebrahim for having started many governance initiatives that we want our new chief minister to keep going,” the physician-ophthalmologist Sinolinding said.

 Sema, chairman of the MNLF that has a separate truce with Malacañang, expressed gratitude on behalf of himself and his followers to Ebrahim for sharing power with them during his time at the helm of the Bangsamoro government.

“The MILF and the MNLF are different organizations, but have a common peace and development agenda for southern Moro sectors. Both fronts want lasting peace and development in Mindanao via governance,” Sema said.

Tago, for his part, said that he and his subordinates in all agencies under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications-BARMM acknowledge Ebrahim's accomplishments in laying the foundations for a functional regional bureaucracy.

“We have no doubt that his successor, the newly-installed Chief Minister Macacua, will protect and sustain the dividends of what our erstwhile chief minister had positively achieved in his five-year leadership in the Bangsamoro government,” Tago said.