Officials glad having OICs for 2 new BARMM provinces

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Officials were elated with Malacañang’s designation of the senior minister of the Bangsamoro government as acting governor of the newly-created Maguindanao del Norte province.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. personally administered in Malacañang Wednesday the oath of office of appointed Gov. Abdulrauf Macacua.

Macacua was senior minister in the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, under Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, prior to his assumption as an appointed Maguindanao del Norte governor.

“We welcome the appointment by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. of Abdulrauf Macacua as governor of Maguindanao del Norte,” BARMM’s local government minister, Naguib Sinarimbo, told reporters here via online Messenger Thursday.

Sinarimbo, spokesperson of the BARMM regional government, said the president’s action is essential to cross-section efforts of spreading peace and sustainable development in towns covered by Maguindanao del Norte.

Maguindanao del Norte is composed of municipalities that were originally grouped together in the first congressional district of the old Maguindanao province.

The towns in the second district of the still undivided Maguindanao comprise what is now the Maguindanao del Sur province, now under an appointed governor, Mariam Mangudadatu, elected governor of the old province during the May 2022 elections.

Maguindanao was split via a plebiscite in September 2022 that led to the ratification of a congressional measure creating Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur.

The elected vice governor of the old Maguindanao, Ainee Limbona-Sinsuat, and a member of its now defunct provincial board, Nathaniel Midtimbang, were also appointed by the president as vice governors of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, respectively.

Wednesday’s event in Malacañang was witnessed by Sinarimbo and local executives from across Maguindanao del Norte, among them Mayor Marshall Sinsuat of Datu Blah Sinsuat, a staunch supporter of the joint peace and socio-economic programs of the BARMM government and Malacañang.

“We are grateful to President Marcos. Our local government unit shall support the leadership of Maguindanao del Norte’s governor that he appointed, Sinsuat said.

The physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., a member of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, said Thursday he is certain that Macacua can efficiently manage the Maguindanao del Norte provincial government.

“This is something memorable for us because he was personally sworn to office by President Marcos during the Ramadhan fasting season, a holy month for Muslims,” Sinolinding said.

Sinolinding, an eye specialist and former health secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that got replaced with BARMM in 2019, said Thursday he shall cooperate extensively with Macacua’s provincial health programs.