Newly-appointed BARMM Cabinet members assume posts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua had tapped seven lawyers to oversee different ministries in the autonomous regional government that have extensive public service thrusts benefiting Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities in the autonomous region.

Macacua said on Friday, November 6, that the seven lawyers, Naguib Sinarimbo, Alirakim Munder, Jay Datumanong Salliman, Ishak Mastura, Kitem Kadatuan,Jr., Faizal Padate and Ubaida Pacasem will function as heads of big ministries that are under his office.

The ethnic Maguindanaons Sinarimbo, Mastura and Kadatuan and Salliman, who is of mixed Yakan and Maguindanaon descent, are among the members of the 80-seat parliament elected during the region’s September 14 elections, the first since the creation in 2019 of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Macacua told reporters on Friday, November 6, that he had appointed Sinarimbo as education minister, Munder as social services minister, Salliman as health minister, Mastura as agriculture, fisheries and agrarian reform minister and Kadatuan as labor and employment minister.

Sinarimbo had served as local government minister of the interim BARMM government from 2019 until 2024. Mastura, a former regional trade secretary of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was replaced with a more empowered BARMM in 2019, had also functioned as chairman of the region's Board of Investment for a long time.

Padate and Pacasem shall oversee the operation of the trade and investment and tourism and the finance and budget management ministries, respectively.

Macacua retained Jordan Bayam as BARMM's local government minister, a position he first held in 2025, in an interim capacity.

Bayam is popular for his active involvement, along with officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in peacebuilding activities in Central Mindanao in support of the national government’s Southern Mindanao peace process.

Macacua had entrusted the regional government’s Ministry of Public Works to an engineer, Bashir Ibrahim, who is not a member of the parliament and the Ministry of Public Order and Safety to Jomar Midtimbang, also not a regional lawmaker.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Ministry shall be managed by Jo Genna Jover, a representative to the parliament of BARMM’s non-Moro indigenous communities, and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources by Akmad Brahim,

Two other elected parliament members, Hanie Bud and Rashdi Adiong, assumed the management of the science and technology and the human settlement and development ministries, respectively.

Termizie Masahud was named minister of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and a former member of the now-defunct interim parliament, the lawyer Laisa Alamia, as director of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority.

Macacua had also appointed Abunawas Maslamama as senior minister, Mohammad Asnin Pendatun as assistant senior minister, Abdullah Cusain as cabinet secretary, and the lawyer Duque Kadatuan as attorney-general, all directly under his office.

All the new members of the BARMM cabinet were individually sworn in office by Macacua at the BARMM regional government center in Cotabato City on Friday.