Featured image above shows BARMM Attorney General & MBHTE Acting Deputy Minister Bantuas M. Lucman, COA Audit Team Leader Atty. Hedjarah B. Mangompia-Said, and others during the 2025 Exit Conference. (Credit for images: MBHTE)
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COTABATO CITY — The Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), under the leadership of Interim Chief Minister and Concurrent Minister of MBHTE Abdulraof A. Macacua, together with the Commission on Audit (COA), held its Exit Conference for Calendar Year 2025 on Thursday, June 25, at the MBHTE Conference Room, Bangsamoro Government Center (BGC).
Led by Bangsamoro Attorney General and Concurrent Acting Deputy Minister Atty. Bantuas M. Lucman and COA Audit Team Leader Atty. Hedjarah B. Mangompia-Said, the conference served as a platform to discuss the results of the annual audit, address key findings, and strengthen efforts toward continuous improvement in financial management and administrative processes.
During the conference, Acting Deputy Minister Atty. Lucman acknowledged that he is still adjusting to his new role as he emphasized his commitment to learning, collaboration, and accountable governance.
“I am still quite new to this role, and I am learning the complexities and heavy responsibilities of this office every single day. Balancing this new leadership with my concurrent role as the Bangsamoro Attorney General is no small task. I will try my absolute best to serve both offices with honor, but while I am still navigating this new journey, please know that one thing will never waver: my commitment to uphold moral governance, transparency, and accountability in everything we do,” he said.
The conference further reinforced the ministry’s commitment to accountability, sound financial management, and effective public service delivery for the Bangsamoro people.
Earlier this June, Macacua appointed Lucman to the MBHTE as his trusted right hand man to implement the various reforms he wants to be put in place in the education ministry.
The Chief Minister assumed the MBHTE’s stewardship ssometime in the middle of May following the initial findings of COA’s special audit team relating to the ministry’s certain past transactions.
One of the 15 primary ministries of the Bangsamoro Government, the MBHTE is the largest agency of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), with teaching personnel representing a big bulk of the total number of employees.
Established through the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the BARMM is comprised of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, the cities of Cotabato, and Lamitan, and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) made up of eight municipalities within the territory of North Cotabato province but is under the BARMM jurisdiction. (/)