ARMM agri secretary files COC for partylist rep

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The agriculture secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has launched his candidacy for the Anak Mindanao (AMIN) partylist congressional slot with a pitch to serve all “tri-people” in the country’s south.

The tri-people refers to Southern Mindanao’s Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro lumad communities.

Lawyer Makmod Mending Jr., a Maguindanaon, filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) on Thursday at the central office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Intramuros, Manila along with AMIN’s reelectionist representative, Sitti Djalia Hataman and another newcomer, Roelito Ayubat Gawilan.

Mending was admitted to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines on March 6, 2008.

Gawilan, who is AMIN’s third congressional nominee, belong to an indigenous group in Bukidnon province in Administrative Region 10.

Hataman, spouse of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, was first elected as AMIN partylist representative on May 13, 2013.

“I am thankful to the AMIN partylist for this vote of confidence. I will work hard for the good of the sectors that stand to benefit from its representation in Congress,” Mending on Saturday told The STAR.

Mending while secretary of ARMM’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), implemented more than a billion worth of government projects, some partly financed by the AMIN partylist, meant to improve the productivity of the region’s peasant and fishery sectors.

Under Mending and Gov. Hataman’s joint control, the DAF was voted as one of the top four best performing agencies of the regional government in the past three years.

Also named ARMM’s top performers besides DAF were the regional public works, education and health departments under Regional Secretaries Don Mustapha Loong, John Magno and Kadil, Sinolinding Jr., respectively.

Gov. Hataman, who exercises ministerial supervision of all agencies in the executive department of ARMM, is also seeking reelection as Liberal Party’s official candidate.

The operations of DAF shall be managed meantime by Gov. Hataman’s regional executive secretary, lawyer Laisa Masuhud Alamia, following Mending’s filing of COC, which implied outright resignation from his appointive post.

Mending bade his subordinates in the regional agriculture department an emotional goodbye before he left for Manila to file his COC.

He urged them to extend to Alamia the technical and administrative support they provided him while at the helm of the agency.