ARMM guv reappoints 3 more regional execs

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Reelected Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) reappointed three more of his secretaries who helped him manage the ARMM government during his 2013 to 2016 tenure.

Hataman reenlisted Amihilda Sangcopan and Kahal Kedtag as agrarian reform and natural resources secretaries, respectively, and Hexsan Mabang as administrator of the Polloc Port in Maguindanao.

Mabang, on concurrent capacity, will also help Hataman oversee ARMM’s Regional Economic Zone Authority.

Copies of Sangcopan, Kedtag and Mabang’s new appointments, which Hataman signed this week, were obtained by The STAR on Friday.

Hataman was reelected on May 9, 2016, along with ARMM’s regional vice governor, Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman.

Their terms of office, which officially started on June 30, 2016, will last until June 30, 2019.

Regional officials with “co-terminus appointments” were asked by Hataman to resign effective June 30 for him to have a free hand in reorganizing the chain of leadership from the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG), touted as ARMM’s “Little Malacañang,” down to its component agencies.

Hataman earlier reappointed human rights lawyers Laisa Masuhud Alamia and Rasol Mitmog Jr., and journalist Amir Mawallil as his executive secretary, chief of staff, and information director, respectively.

The six reappointed officials helped Hataman reform the regional bureaucracy and improve its delivery of health, education, public works, social welfare and environment-protection services during his first term as regional governor.

The ARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The region, which is so politically and administratively unique, has a constitutionally-mandated charter, the Republic Act 9054 that devolved the functions and powers of national line agencies to the regional government, grouped together under Hataman’s office.

It also has a 24-seat law-making body, also known as s “Little Congress” of ARMM, composed of three representatives from each of the region’s eight congressional districts.