Hermoso steps down as MOTC head with feats
COTABATO CITY - The retired Army officer who served for three years as Bansgamoro transportation and communication minister relinquished his post Monday, September 29, to a successor.
The outgoing Dickson Hermoso, who was at the helm of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, was replaced by a new appointee, the accountant-lawyer Paisalin Tago, who is also a member of the 80-seat 2022-2025 regional parliament.
Hermoso had started various programs that made agencies under the MOTC functionally efficient, officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao told reporters who covered his turnover of the ministry to Tago, who hails from Lanao del Sur.
In a brief message, he then announced that he is confident that Tago can manage the MOTC efficiently.
“The employees of the MOTC have assured to support you the way they supported me in the past three years,” Hermoso told Tago before they each affixed their signatures to a document detailing the transfer of control of the ministry from him to his successor.
The MOTC has field personnel in the BARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Taw-Tawi.
Tago is no neophyte to public service.
He was budget director of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during the time of ARMM Gov. Lininding Pangandaman whose tenure spanned through 1993 to 1996.
Tago had also served as speaker of the erstwhile 21-member Regional Assembly of ARMM.
“I am thankful to BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim for giving me the chance to help lay down the foundations or the regional government from 2019 to 2022,” Hermoso said. (John Felix Unson)