Hussin grapples with agency’s money woes

COTABATO CITY — Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Parouk Hussin will inherit some P100 million in unpaid accounts and benefits of the region’s teachers when he takes over the position of regional education secretary this week.

ARMM Vice Gov. Mahid Mutilan vacated the position recently following his filing of candidacy for governor of his home-province of Lanao del Sur.

Mutilan, who headed the ARMM’s Department of Education in a concurrent capacity from 2002 until the last working day of December, has blamed his predecessors for the fiscal problems besetting the agency.

When he announced his gubernatorial plans last month, Mutilan said the department’s "caretakers" after the detention of former ARMM Gov. Nur Misuari on rebellion charges, failed to settle the agency’s huge accounts and remit the monthly contributions of the region’s teachers to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Hussin said he would try his best to address the financial problems of the education department, particularly the non-payment of the teachers’ GSIS contributions.

Hussin is, incidentally, also the concurrent secretary of the ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways.

Hussin, however, would have to fix the problems in the education department all by himself since his top "troubleshooter," ARMM Executive Secretary Hadji Nabil Tan, has resigned to run for congressman in Sulu under the banner of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).

Hussin said Tan found it difficult to turn down the clamor of Sulu’s political, religious and community leaders for him to seek one of the two congressional slots in the island-province.

As a government negotiator, Tan, a lawyer and scion of the influential Tan clan of Sulu, helped draft the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.

He was elected a member of the ARMM’s first Regional Legislative Assembly in 1990, and vice governor in 1993, a post he held until 1996.

Tan’s older brother, Sakur, is running for governor of Sulu, a position he held from 1995 to 2001, also under the banner of the LDP.

Meanwhile, Mutilan, who was governor of Lanao del Sur for three consecutive terms before he was elected ARMM vice governor on Nov. 14, 2001, will contest the bid for a second term of Gov. Mamintal Adiong, his former protégé.