Hataman, Mangudadatu chose Cayetano as House speaker
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 22:00 PM Mon Jul 22, 2019
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By:
John M. Unson
The now Congressmen Mujiv Hataman and Esmael Mangudadatu.
COTABATO CITY --- Former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman, now congressman in Basilan, voted for Taguig City-Pateros Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano in Monday’s election of speaker in the House of Representatives.
Hataman’s staunch political ally, the erstwhile three-termer Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, now congressional representative of the second district of Maguindanao, also selected Cayetano from among nominees.
Mangudadatu was governor of Maguindanao, covering 36 towns in two congressional districts, from 2010 to June 30, 2019.
Hataman was regional governor of the now defunct ARMM from late 2011 to February 2019.
He vacated the post by implication of the ratification of the Republic Act 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law via an earlier plebiscite that paved the way for the replacement of the 29-year regional government with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Hataman is remembered for his massive implementation of infrastructure projects in the five provinces of the defunct ARMM --- Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in mainland Mindanao, and the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi --- and for having campaigned extensively for the approval of the BOL via a referendum in the region on January 21, 2019 even as he knew its ratification could boot him out of power.
Mangudadatu also supported the enactment into law of the BOL, a product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose revolutionary figurehead, Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, most known as “Hadji Murad,” is now interim chief minister of BARMM.
Both Hataman and Mangudadatu are certain Cayetano would support the BARMM too by focusing attention on its needs as a fledgling geopolitical entity.