Heads of BARMM ministries active in peace-advocacy programs reappointed

COTABATO CITY — The new chief minister of the Bangsamoro region had reappointed the ministers of three regional agencies that have extensive multi-sector empowerment programs, complementing the peace and sustainable development agenda of the national government’s Mindanao peace process.

Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao told reporters on Wednesday, April 23, that he had issued directives for the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding Jr., Paisalin Tago and Muslimin Sema to continue functioning as BARMM’s health, transportation and communications and labor and employment ministers, respectively.

Sinolinding, Tago and Sema were appointees of the first-ever BARMM chief minister, Ahod Ebrahim, replaced just three weeks ago by Macacua, who was appointed to the post in early March by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Ebrahim and his successor, Macacua, are both senior officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Their peace compact with the national government, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, paved the way for the 2019 replacement of the 27-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the more administratively and politically empowered BARMM.

Sema, who was reappointed last week by Macacua as BARMM’s labor and employment minister, is the chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which also has representatives in the 80-seat Bangsamoro Parliament. The MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are jointly overseeing several BARMM agencies that implement programs in support of the national government’s peace efforts with southern Moro communities.

Sinolinding is no stranger to autonomous regional governance, having served for five years as health secretary of the now-defunct ARMM. Tago, meanwhile, was a former speaker of the ARMM’s 21-seat Regional Assembly, which was replaced in 2019 by the 80-seat Bangsamoro Parliament, currently led by Macacua.

In addition to their roles as health and transportation and communications ministers, respectively, Sinolinding and Tago also serve concurrently as members of the BARMM Parliament, following separate appointments by Marcos.

Macacua said he had also reappointed Andrew Alonto as the director of the Bangsamoro Information Office.