MNLF, rival partisans support new BARMM chief minister

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two large groups with thousands of members and supporters, one of which is a regional party not aligned with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have assured of support for the governance initiatives of the new chief minister of the Bangsamoro region.

Abdulrauf Macacua, leader of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, took oath as new chief minister of the autonomous region on Thursday, March 27, at the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Cotabato City. He replaced BARMM’s first ever chief minister, Ahod Ebrahim, based on a designation early this month by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

Ebrahim, who is chairman of the MILF's central committee, got to the helm of the regional government in 2019 via an appointment by then President Rodrigo Duterte.

A newly-appointed member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, more known as the SIAP regional party, and other members of the bloc released a statement on Thursday, March 27, assuring support for Macacua's leadership in the BARMM government.

Macacua, as chief minister, is figurehead of the region’s 80-member lawmaking body and has ministerial control over all ministries and offices under the Bangsamoro government.

The statement that Sinarimbo, who is chairman of SIAP for Cotabato City and the Special Geographic Area-BARMM in Cotabato province, and senior Moro party officials, Cotabato City Vice Mayor Johari Abu, Nimbo Sinarimbo, Edun Sumlay, Rhene Tukuran and Tonicks Enalang, together signed also emphasized their desire of peaceful and orderly elections in May 2025 in the autonomous region.

Macacua is a senior official of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Party, which anointed candidates for local and provincial posts in BARMM who have rivals belonging to the SIAP regional party.

The SIAP, which is led by Lanao del Sur’s vice governor, Mohammad Rakiin Adiong, has more than 700,000 fully documented members and supporters in the five provinces and three cities in the autonomous region.

“We shall support to the best we can the peace, governance and humanitarian programs of our region’s new chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua,” Sinarimbo told reporters on Saturday, March 29.

Sinarimbo, appointed last week as member of the Bangsamoro parliament by President Marcos, is no stranger to the regional government. He was a former BARMM interior and local government minister and, in concurrent capacity, also functioned then as in-charge of the region’s Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence contingent.  

Besides SIAP’s chapter encompassing Cotabato City and the SGA-BARMM in Cotabato province, the Moro National Liberation Front also separately pledged to help Macacua sustain the gains of the MNLF and the MILF’s separate peace agreements with the national government.

“These are two different Moro fronts, but have a common agenda for peace and sustainable development in the Bangsamoro region that have mixed Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities,” MNLF Chairman Muslimin Sema, who is BARMM’s regional labor and employment minister, said.

The MILF and MNLF have been cooperating since 2019 in managing a number of agencies and support offices under the office of BARMM’s chief minister.

“We are glad that the cooperation, under Chief Minister Macacua, shall continue. We in the MNLF shall support his being chief minister of the region just the way we supported the administration of his successor, the former Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim,” Sema, who is BARMM’s labor and employment minister for about three years now, said.

BARMM's transportation and communications minister, the accountant-lawyer Paisalin Pangandaman Tago, a scion of a big Maranao political clan in Lanao del Sur, said he is thankful to SIAP's Cotabato City and SGA-BARMM chapter for committing support for Macacua. He said it will boost the regional government's effort to foster political, religious and cultural solidarity among constituents in the autonomous region.

Tago, who is a member of the MILF's political party, leaders of their clan in Lanao del Sur and their political supporters had earlier recognized Macacua, via separate statements aired by broadcast outfits in Central Mindanao, as the new chief minister of BARMM following his appointment to the post by President Marcos.