Abdulraof Macacua, Bangsamoro鈥檚 new interim chief minister 鈥擜bdulraof Macacua/Facebook
COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines 鈥� After he was named the new interim chief minister of the Bangsamoro replacing Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chair Ahod Ebrahim, people are asking who Abdulraof Macacua is and why he is appointed to the post.
Macacua, the current Maguindanao del Norte acting governor, is one of the senior leaders of the MILF. In fact, he is the chief of staff of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), MILF鈥檚 military wing.
When word about his new appointment by President Marcos spread like wildfire on social media on Sunday, Macacua was only 11 days shy of his 68th birthday.
READ: Maguindanao Norte gov is named new Bangsamoro chief
But he was only 14 when he joined the Moro independence movement in 1971 and adopted the nom de guerre Sammy Gambar, the latter alluding to Barangay Gambar, his birthplace.
Born on March 13, 1957, Macacua鈥檚 late father was Makakua Watamama Tubo-Tubo, from Barangay Gambar, Mother Kabuntalan, in the then undivided Maguindanao province. His mother, the late Salma Bantuas Abdul-Macacua, was from Bayang, Lanao del Sur.
He underwent training both in the Philippines and abroad and rose in the MILF ranks, becoming among the MILF leaders who launched an armed struggle for self-determination under the BIAF.
He later became a member of the MILF peace negotiating panel who carried out 17 years of negotiations with the government that ended with the signing of the peace deal in 2014.
Macacua also became a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, a government body created as a result of the peace talks, to draft an organic law for a Bangsamoro autonomous region.
As one of the senior ministers in the Bangsamoro, he served as the head of the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy from 2019 to February 2022.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte named Macacua among the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority, which serves as an interim government of the BARMM during the transition period. He served his three-year term from 2019 to 2022 and was reappointed by President Marcos in 2022.
He stayed in the post until he was named acting governor of Maguindanao del Norte in 2023, after the province was divided into Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur.
Currently, he is the secretary general of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, the political party of MILF, which is headed by Ebrahim.
Macacua, who is married to Guianima Balang Macacua with whom he has seven children, lives in Sitio Wawa, Barangay Tuka, Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao del Norte.
Deafening silence
The news of Macacua鈥檚 appointment surprised some Bangsamoro government leaders and residents who posted on various social media platforms questions why it happened when Ebrahim could still effectively lead the regional bureaucracy.
As congratulatory greetings pour for Macacua on social media, Ebrahim handled the news with a deafening silence
As of Monday, Ebrahim and Macacua have yet to issue a public statement about the change of the BARMM leadership.
Late last year, reports circulating in the region said that Ebrahim would voluntarily step down due to health reasons and that his replacement would be a toss between Macacua and Mohagher Iqbal, another senior leader of the MILF.
These reports remained unconfirmed until Sunday, when Malaca帽ang announced Macacua鈥檚 appointment.