Turn over of ARMM to BTA marks activation of Bangsamoro region

COTABATO CITY -- Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao turned over the ARMM government to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) in an emotional event here Tuesday.The turnover of ARMM to the interim chief minister of the BTA, Hadji Murad Ebrahim, signaled the start of its replacement with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM.The BARMM is a product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF that Ebrahim leads as figurehead of its central leadership core.The transition rite, held at the 300-seater Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the 33-hectare ARMM regional capitol in Cotabato City, was facilitated by the office of Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez, Jr.Galvez, in a message, lauded Hataman for his administration’s governance, infrastructure, and socio-economic feats while at the helm of the ARMM government.The turnover of ARMM to the MILF-led BTA was witnessed by members of Hataman’s now defunct regional cabinet and military officials led by Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of the Western Mindanao Command and the commander of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana.In an emotional speech, Hataman said he is confident that the MILF-led BARMM will be a good vehicle for the attainment of lasting peace and sustainable development in its core territory -- all five provinces of ARMM.The BARMM shall also cover Cotabato City, originally under Administrative Region 12, now the Bangsamoro regional capital.Hataman and members of his cabinet campaigned extensively for the ratification of BARMM’s charter, the Republic Act 11054, also known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law, during a plebiscite last January 21 in ARMM’s component-provinces, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and in Cotabato City.Hataman, whose second term as ARMM governor is to end June 30 yet, said he has decided not to join the transitory bloc led by Ebrahim so he can return to Basilan, his home-place, and focus on local humanitarian and security programs meant to complement the fragile peace now in the province.Hataman has worked out the surrender of 235 Abu Sayyaf gunmen in Basilan in the past 24 months, now grouped together in cooperatives engaged in farming, fishing and other entrepreneurial activities. Let us now unite, do away with tribalism, let the Yakans, Maguindanaons, Meranaos, Tausug and Samah people and the Lumads unite now under this Bangsamoro government, Hataman said in between sobs.Hataman’s speech was punctuated with chants of Allahu Akbar (Allah is great) by members of the BTA whom President Rodrigo Duterte sworn to office in an inaugural rite in Malacañang last Friday.Ebrahim said his leadership of the BARMM interim parliament will focus on pressing concerns besetting its territory – illiteracy, poverty and corruption on the bureaucracy.The BTA will manage on caretaker basis the BARMM pending the election of its first pioneering set of officials in 2022.Ebrahim also announced in his message their creation of 11 BARMM ministries, budget and finance under Engineer Edward Guerra, health under physician Saff Dipatuan, local government under lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, social services under Raisa Jadjurie, indigenous communities under Melanio Ulama, education under Muhaquer Iqbal, natural resources under Abdulrauf Macacua, and agriculture under Mohammad Suwaid Yacob.Ebrahim said he will oversee, on concurrent capacity, BARMM’s public works ministry. I shall be responsible for leading a morally-upright government, he said.Ebrahim said members of the BARMM interim parliament shall also swore over the Qur’an to shun corruption and tribalism in managing its ministries and in discharging their functions as BTA officials.