ARMM installs Samal solon as new speaker

COTABATO CITY — Members of the 24-seat Regional Legislative Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) installed, in an emotion-filled session here the other day, a Samal solon as speaker, replacing a Maguindanaon after months of squabbles for the third highest post in the ARMM government.

Assemblyman Ismael Abubakar, Jr., who replaced Ibrahim Ibay (1st district, Maguindanao), said the assembly, after naming him as new speaker, also revamped its political structure by designating a new speaker pro tempore, Datu Suharto Midtimbang of Maguindanao. The change in the RLA’s leadership was the third since 2001. Transitions in the ARMM were marked by intense political differences among regional legislators fragmented by their ethnic and cultural identities.

Abubakar, who hails from Bohe Indangan in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi, was first elected as RLA member during the ARMM’s first elections in 1990, but resigned when he ran for a position in his province during the 1992 local polls.

Abubakar said he would focus on the enactment of pending bills in the ARMM, including the creation of the Regional Economic Zone Authority (REZA), which aims to establish a trading mechanism that would link traders in the ARMM with foreign investors.

Meanwhile, Ibay said he would question in court the legality of Abubakar’s take over of the assembly’s leadership, asserting there were "administrative hitches" in the mode of his assumption as new speaker.

Ibay questioned the propriety of Abubakar’s election as speaker by only 11 solons, short of two votes from the 24-member assembly.

Only 10 assemblymen, mostly Maranaws and Maguindanaons, supported Ibay’s supposed stay in the assembly’s highest slot during the deliberation the other day on the change of the RLA’s leadership.

Abubakar said he would face in court any legal action by Ibay.

"We are in a democratic country governed by rules. I would welcome such a move because I myself believes in the judiciary and its paramount role in resolving conflicting interpretations of the law," Abubakar said.