New BARMM chief mends ties with MILF
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
COTABATO CITY—Newly installed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua has promised continuity in the programs of the regional government while also vowing to straighten some ruffled feathers with his colleagues in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who had issues with the process of his appointment to the post.
“There is not much to worry about [in terms of governance direction] because we belong to the same boat,” said Macacua, who takes over the BARMM leadership from MILF Chair Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.
Hours after assuming office on Thursday, Macacua answered questions from reporters participating in the four-day “Inside BARMM: A Walk Through the Bangsamoro Region” event organized by the Mindanao Institute of Journalism.
Macacua said there will be no shakeup in the BARMM interim parliament Cabinet, hence, the current leadership of the ministries will stay to keep the momentum of their activities, although he would also subject them to performance review.
With less than eight months to be in office, Macacua said he would want to focus on helping to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the midterm elections on May 12, and the first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections on Oct. 13.
READ: Abdulraof Macacua: Man of the hour
With the police and military, Macacua had helped broker the forging of a peace covenant among the political aspirants in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, raising hopes there would be less violence in the run-up to and during the midterm elections in both provinces.
First order
Before journalists, Macacua signed his first administrative order, which was to grant a P10,000 Ramadan bonus each to some 40,000 regular, casual, contractual and job order workers of the regional government.
As of Thursday, there are only 77 total appointees to seats in the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the interim government of the BARMM.
Macacua expected that President Marcos would fill in the three more in time for the oath taking rites for all BTA members on March 24 in Malacañang.
By then, the new BARMM leader also expected to have patched things up with his MILF colleagues, especially in the central committee, who have misgivings with the way the Palace reorganized the BTA that catapulted him to the helm.
Although he acknowledged that “there is a situation” arising from the changes in the BTA, he brushed aside suggestions there is already disunity within the MILF leadership.
READ: MILF central committee rejects Macacua’s BARMM appointment
But he was confident that they would be able to overcome this and “reconcile” given their deep ties as Moro revolutionaries who have been together in the Bangsamoro struggle for the last 54 years.
Macacua said that he, Ebrahim and BARMM Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal, another senior MILF leader, last met on Tuesday in Camp Darapanan, the erstwhile rebel group’s administrative base, to make arrangements for the leadership transition.
He related that he told Ebrahim he would already assume office by Thursday and the latter agreed to have a formal turnover that day. But both of them were prevailed upon by Iqbal who suggested to have it done on March 27, incidentally the 11th year anniversary of the signing of its peace deal with the government.
By then, all of them would have taken their oath before the President.
Prior to Monday’s ceremony in Malacañang, Iqbal said they wanted an audience with the President so they could convey their sentiments about the recent changes in the BTA.
“But we are not questioning the authority of the President. We just wanted to put across our thoughts why we have issues with the process of appointments,” Iqbal clarified.
Iqbal revealed that as early as January, the central committee was asked for nominees to fill the BTA seats. As with previous practice, the MILF submitted a nominee for Chief Minister and 40 others as members of parliament.
Macacua, who was Maguindanao del Norte’s acting governor, is chief of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the MILF’s armed wing. He was among the group’s nominees, but not as chief minister, Iqbal stressed.
Six other MILF nominees were not appointed.
Macacua revealed that each of the BARMM’s five provincial governors were asked to nominate five, presumably to fill in the 39 government nominees in the BTA.
