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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — If there’s any doubt on the “Moral Governance” policy of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the appointment of His Eminence, Cardinal Orlando Beltran Quevedo, OMI, D.D., to the Bangsamoro Council of Leaders should help clear it.
Doubters may ask, what is Mindanao’s top Catholic leader, though love well by both Christians and Muslims, doing in an advisory body of a governance structure under the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). That, surely, is a myopic view of how inter-religious and inter-cultural relations have evolved in Southern Philippines, the Land of Promise.
Especially that the Bangsamoro government has since its inception in 2019 has embraced inclusivity as one of its governance anchors.
Thus, Cardinal Quevedo’s membership in the Council should not come as a surprise, he has proven himself to be a leader not only of his Catholic flock but, surely, among the Moros and Indigenous People (IP) of Mindanao. He is a giant in the Philippines’ interfaith dialogues that bring people of diverse faiths, emphasizing commonalities rather than differences. The former archbishop of Cotabato has been pushing mutual co-existence among the tri-peoples of Mindanao for peace to reign.
(Personally, this pen pusher, a son of Mindanao living in Manila, is delighted.)
The regional Council of Leaders is an advisory body tasked to provide advice to and guide Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim on matters of governance. Unquestionably, that includes advice and guidance on accountability as the Moral Governance is very much about.
Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF, issued much earlier a Special Order on the appointments of the nine members of the Council, community and sectoral representatives, such as Mohammad Abqary Alon (Youth); Noni Lao (Women); Mlang Madal (traditional Leaders); Troy Eric Cordero (Settler Communities), now deceased; Aboulkhair Tarason (Ulama); Tungko Tadtagan (Professionals); Bai Shalimar Candao (Business); Musa Solaiman (Farmers); and Malik Caril (Bangsamoro Communities Outside the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region).
Apparently, Cordero’s demise gave way to Quevedo’s getting the appointment from the Chief Minister to replace the former who left the temporal world in June 2023.
Now, the Council has two religious leaders, the other one being Teduray Bishop Ernie Moral of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Philippines, who hails from South Upi in Maguindanao del Sur, representing Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (NMIP), per Mindanews.com.
In a statement sent to SDN — SciTech and Digital News, from the Office of Minister of Parliament (MP) Mary Ann M. Arnado, a lawyer, and another stalwart of the Mindanao peace process, warmly welcomed the former erstwhile archbishop’s joining the Council.
The MPC noted that under Article VI, Section 9, of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), the Council of Leaders shall advise the Chief Minister on matters of governance.
It added that bringing in Cardinal Quevedo to advise the Chief Minister is very consistent with the avowed mission to promote moral governance in the Bangsamoro. It sends an unequivocal message that the BARMM is resolute in enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong in the way autonomy is exercised in the Bangsamoro.
“This is a very astute choice and this only shows that the leadership of the BARMM seriously walks its talk on moral governance. Yet again, BARMM proves it is inclusive”, MPC Chairman Hussein Akmad emphasizes.
“We thank Cardinal Quevedo for accepting the appointment and taking the extra mile, not only to support, but to be with the Bangsamoro people, at this most critical juncture of the extended transition period,” Arnado, former MPC secretary general, and now a legislator of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), says.
The Council also counts as its members the six governors of the BARMM and its city mayors.
Established in 2018 by the BOL to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro region 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 comprising the Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided 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.
Cardinal Quevedo is a staunch supporter of the peace process and has played an instrumental role in fostering dialogue of life and faith between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao. Born in Ilocos Norte, Cardinal Quevedo grew up and studied in Marbel, Koronadal, Cotabato, in the late 40s and early 50’s.
His parents were public school teachers who migrated from the crowded North to the vast and spacious South. He worked as a priest-educator in Cotabato City for 12 years, as a parish priest in Jolo for almost two years, as Bishop of Kidapawan for six years, and as Archbishop of Cotabato from 1998 to 2018.[1]
He served as President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines from 1999 to 2003, and President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) from 2005 to 2011.
MPC prays that the Council of Leaders will be enlightened and endowed with wisdom to be able to fulfill its legal mandate to advise the Chief Minister, with the best interest of the people, in their minds and hearts.
Present incumbent governors of the BARMM component provinces are: Hadjiman S. Hataman-Salliman (Basilan); Mamintal Adiong, Jr. (Lanao del Sur); Bai Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu (Maguindanao del Sur); Abduraof Macacua (Maguindanao del Norte); Abdusakur Tan (Sulu); and Yshmael “Mang” I. Sali (Tawi-Tawi). (✓)
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Source: Office of MP Atty. Mary Ann M. Arnado, Mindanews.com