Misuari followers ready to give up ARMM posts

COTABATO CITY — Recalcitrant followers of renegade former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari are now ready to peacefully relinquish their positions to newly elected regional officials, insiders said yesterday.

Sources at the governor’s office, mostly career officers and whose appointments are covered by civil service laws, confirmed that the ARMM’s caretaker, Speaker Alvarez Isnaji, presided over an emergency meeting of the regional Cabinet here the other day and announced that he was now ready to turn over the regional government to governor-elect Parouk Hussin.

The sources, among them directorate staffers, said they are convinced that Isnaji, a known loyalist of Misuari, who is now languishing in a Malaysian jail, could have softened from his previous stand after learning that the region’s career employees were poised to file charges against him if he would continue to hold on as ARMM Speaker on holdover capacity despite the proclamation of Hussin as the newly elected governor.

The sources, however, said the Department of Budget and Management and the regional treasury should freeze all funds intended for the salaries of ARMM employees and for operating expenses of their respective offices, fearing that Misuari’s followers might still withdraw huge cash advances.

Lawyer Nabil Tan, deputy of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita, said the region’s amended charter, embodied in Republic Act 9054, clearly stipulates that the term of Hussin and vice governor-elect Mahid Mutilan will start immediately after their proclamation by the Commission on Elections.

Tan said RA 9054 also states that the term of regional officials whom Malacañang allowed to function on holdover basis will automatically end as soon as their duly elected replacements are officially proclaimed.

Career staffers of the ARMM have insinuated that they would elevate to a competent court the issue over the continued stay in office of Isnaji and a core of his trusted followers, all identified with Misuari.

"They should not wait for the military to pluck them out of the governor’s office and drag them away," one of the sources said.

In a random survey, 29 out of 31 career employees of the ARMM told The STAR that they want Hussin to take over the regional leadership as soon as he can so he can initiate a major revamp of the rank and file, which Misuari loyalists have virtually dominated in the past five years.