GOVERNANCE/POLITICS

COTABATO CITY --- Officials helping address the southern secessionist problem got elated with the mention of the Mindanao peace process in the president’s State of the Nation Address Monday.

In separate statements Tuesday, Representatives Mujiv Hataman and Esmael Mangudadatu of Basilan and the second district of Maguindanao, respectively, both appreciated the commitment of President Rodrigo Duterte to sustain the gains of his diplomatic overtures with Mindanao’s Moro communities as mentioned in his SONA.

NORTH COTABATO --- First-termer Gov. Nancy Catamco on Monday reorganized the provincial security council to boost peace initiatives for domestic culturally-pluralistic communities.

Catamco, a congresswoman in this province prior to her election as governor last May 13, convened on Monday the provincial peace and order council, or PPOC, to reprogram its direction on stabilizing security in all of the 17 towns in the province and in its capital, Kidapawan City.

COTABATO CITY — Bangsamoro Region Interim Chief Minister Hadji Murad Ebrahim has reiterated an earlier commitment he made to help the government fight terrorism, corruption and the proliferation of dangerous drugs.

Local Governments Minister Naguib Sinarimbo of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) said the BARMM leadership’s commitment was acknowledged by Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año in his meeting with Murad Monday, two years after they first met in Davao City with President Rodrigo Duterte at the start of the Marawi siege.

COTABATO CITY — The Department of the Interior and Local Government will work on smooth transfer of supervision of its local offices in the newly created Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).  

Minister Naguib Sinarimbo of the BARMM’s Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) said this has developed following a meeting which DILG Secretary Eduardo Año had hosted Tuesday for Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Chief Minister Hadji Murad Ebrahim and his BARMM team.

COTABATO CITY – Pursuant to the RA 11054 popularly known as Bangsamoro Organic Law, Secretary Eduardo Año of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) ordered to prepare the necessities on the turn-over of Cotabato City and the 63 Barangays of North Cotabato to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as well as the institutional arrangement for national DILG programs being implemented in the Region 9, 10, and 12.

BASILAN --- The provincial government wants all rank-and-file employees honed in use of computers to maximize public service efficiency using cyber technology.

Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman said Friday he wants all of his subordinates, particularly those involved in technical fieldworks, to keep upgrading their computer literacy skills as part of his continuing modernization of the provincial government’s operation.

Salliman first got to the helm of the Basilan PG as governor in 2013 and was, subsequently, reelected to a second term last May 13.

KIDAPAWAN CITY  - Listening is a leadership quality that does not appear in the job description.

But when Gov. Nancy A. Catamcao took oath as the 25^th North Cotabato Governor, the new chief executive promised that her administration will be unifying instead of dividing.

Speaking before hundreds of national government agency representatives, provincial officials and employees, Catamco urged everyone to not fear the new leadership in the province, saying she understands the apprehension and doubts of some every time a new leader takes over the reins of governance.

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao  – It’s final.  This town will once again become the seat of Maguindanao provincial government as announced by Gov. Bai Meriam Sangki-Mangudadatu.

In her inaugural speech and State of the Province Address Wednesday, Gov. Mangudadatu stressed that Shariff Aguak is the legitimate provincial capital of Maguindanao based on Presidential Decree 341 signed by then President Ferdinand Marcos.

“That presidential decree remained in effect to date,” the lady governor said in the vernacular.

BULUAN, Maguindanao  – Outgoing Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu on Sunday officially relinquished his post to the newly elected provincial governor during simple and emotional turnover ceremonies here.

Mangudadatu, elected governor of Maguindanao in 2010 following the bloodiest single election related incident in the country’s electoral history – the 2009 Maguindanao massacre – will commence as the new representative of Maguindanao representing the second district to the House of Representatives.