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Governor Mujiv Hataman of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, turn over the documents during the handover ceremony to Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chief Al Haj Murad Ebrahim as Chief Minister (center), on Tuesday February 26, 2019 while OPAPP Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr looks on (left) in Cotabato City. Chief minister Murad will assume the leadership of an interim body that will govern the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Amid voices of discontentment from their colleagues that warned to establish a new faction in protest of their alleged dictatorship in the new Muslim homeland. ( Photo by Mark Navales)
In turn-over ceremony, MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim assumed the top post of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) from ARMM Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center here.
Ebrahim, who led the
10,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during decades of separatist
rebellion, swapped his bush jacket for formal clothes as he took the reins as
interim leader of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“Now the government that we have longed dreamt of, fought and struggled
for, is finally establish in our homeland,” Murad said. “The trust and
responsibility over the Bangsamoro government is now in our hands. We are
accountable for it.”
Ebrahim now heads an 80-member team in leading the BARMM, a zone made
up of at least five southern provinces where MILF will oversee self-rule until
local voters elect their own parliament by 2022.
The historic event was witnessed by Office of the Presidential Adviser
on the Peace Process Secretary
Carlito Galvez Jr. and more than 5,000
Bangsamoro people.
The autonomous Muslim region was ratified by most voters in at least
five southern provinces through a Jan. 21 and Feb. 6 plebiscite on the
Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which granted autonomy to MILF.
The referendum was the final step in a peace pact that MILF signed with
Manila four years ago.
The BARMM is the result of more than 20 years of peace negotiations
between Manila and the MILF. After assuming the post, Ebrahim announced some of
his regional cabinet members who will help him run the affairs of the new
political entity.
Ebrahim assured ARMM civil government workers that they shall remain in
office in the meantime but those who are co-terminus with the elected officials
may go.
“All those in the bureaucracy will remain intact,” Ebrahim said as the
current ARMM employees who feared of losing jobs when the new leaders assume
office lauded his statement.
Ebrahim also announced the officials that would assumed plum positions
in BARMM. These include Mohagher Iqbal, the former MILF chief negotiator who
will now be minister for education, and Sammy Al-
Mansour, the MILF’s military
chief, who will take over as the new environment minister.
At the same time, MILF Vice Chair for Political Affairs Ghadzali Jaafar
was named speaker of parliament, while Naguib Sinarimbo will be minister for
local government. Ebrahim will hold his concurrent position as the head of
public works.(with reports by Mark Navales- Cotabato City, Philippines).
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