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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN – SciTech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — Mindanao peace process stalwart and former Interior Deputy Minister Abunawas “Von Al-Haq” Maslamama is the new senior minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim appointed him on Monday for continuity of the work of the Office of the Senior Minister (OSM).
Maslamama, who was deputy minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) immediately before his new job appointment, replaced now Maguindanao del Norte Officer-in-Charge (OIC)-Gov. Abdulraof “Sammy Gambar” Macacua.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. appointed Macacua as the first governor in an OIC capacity of the new province which was carved out of the then undivided Province of Maguindanao. The President swore him to office on April 15.
Maguindanao del Sur is the other new province of which the President appointed Bai Mariam S. Mangudadatu as OIC-governor. She has declined taking an oath, however.
Also appointed were Bai Fatima Ainee Limbona Sinsuat as OIC of the Office of the Vice-Governor of Maguindanao del Norte, and Datu Nathaniel Sangacala Midtimbang as OIC of the Office of the Vice Governor of Maguindanao del Sur.
Upon receiving his appointment papers dated April 17 as senior minister, Maslamama expressed his gratitude to Ebrahim, the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is now running the governance of the Bangsamoro region.
Von Al-Haq wears many hats in the Mindanao peace process
“When I received my appointment, it came to my mind that, indeed, a gargantuan task had been laid on my shoulders,” Maslamama, known as “Von Al-Haq” for his nom de guerre.
Prior to his appointment as MILG deputy minister he was at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) during the time of then MOTC Minister Dickson Hermoso.
Von Al-Haq was also former chairman of the MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (MILF CCCH), currently co-chairman of the MILF Joint Peace and Security Team (JPST), former member of the Government of the Philippines (GPH-MILF) Independent Commissioning Body (IDB), and spokesperson of the MILF Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF.)
Maslamama promised to perform his very best in discharging his duties and responsibilities as BARMM senior minister and be worthy of the trust and confidence the Chief Minister placed on his shoulders.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. (✓)
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Source: MILG/MinNGS