ARMM to confirm appointments of new regional secretaries

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The executive branch of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will endorse for confirmation by ARMM’s “little Congress” all newly-appointed regional secretaries and replace those who will flunk the process.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman on Wednesday told reporters those he recently appointed to lead different line agencies and support outfits under the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG) are merely caretakers and can only be called “regional secretaries” once their appointments are confirmed by the Regional Assembly.

Hataman’s office, the ORG, is touted as the ARMM’s “little Malacañang.”

The ORG exercises ministerial control over more than 40 agencies and technical support entities devolved to the region by the national government.

Besides having separate executive and legislative branches, the ARMM is covered by a congressional charter, the Republic Act 9054.

The constitutionally-mandated autonomous region covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in Central Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Hataman said he will decide on whom to replace among members of his newly-reorganized cabinet 100 days after the time he appointed them as officers-in-charge (OICs).

“For now they are only OICs. They can only become regional secretaries once their appointments are confirmed by the ARMM legislature,” Hataman said.

He said the appointment of qualified people to cabinet positions in the ARMM government is premised on the Regional Administrative Code, a regional edict enacted into law by the 24-member regional law-making body.

“We can’t do away with that administrative code,” Hataman said.

Most members of the present ARMM cabinet were the same regional secretaries who helped Hataman managed the regional government during his first term, which lasted from June 30, 2013 to June 30, 2016.

Hataman was reelected to a second term during the May 9, 2016 regional polls, along with his deputy, now second-termer ARMM Regional Vice Governor Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman.

Hataman said one of his main concerns now is to complement with various activities the anti-narcotics campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“We have a president who does what he says, an action man and that is good for governance. He is a decisive and action-oriented leader,” Hataman told reporters during a dialogue Wednesday morning at the ORG in Cotabato City.