Bangsamoro’s “new” Cabinet: mostly reappointed; Misuari’s daughter is Deputy Minister for Social Services

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 Sept) –  The “new” set of Cabinet members of the extended Bangsamoro Transition Authority (2022 to 2025) is a Cabinet of mostly reappointed officials. 

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has 14  Ministers and 15 Deputy Ministers,  among them Nur-Ainee Tan Lim, daughter of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari. Nur-Ainee, who recently passed the Shari’ah bar exams, was named Deputy Minister for Social Services and Development. 

The Bangsamoro Information Office (BIO) on Sunday reported that Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim administered the oath of office of the Ministers and Deputy Ministers last Friday, September 23, at the Badjau Hall of the Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City. 

Ebrahim, Bangsamoro Chief Minister from 2019 to 2022 was reappointed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. last month to serve until the end of the transition period on June 30, 2022. 

Ebrahim reappointed Ali Solaiman and Albakil Jikiri as Deputy Chief Ministers for North Central Mindanao and South Western Mindanao, respectively, as well as Abdulraof Macacua as Senior Minister; Atty. Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba as Attorney-General; Asnin Pendatun as Cabinet Secretary; Abdullah Cusain, as Assistant Senior Minister; Alvin-Yasher Abdulgafar as Chief of Staff; and Engr. Mohajirin Ali as Director General of Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority.

^{Oath-taking of the “new”. Cabinet that is actually composed of mostly reappointed officials, at the Badjau Hall in the Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City on 23 September 2022. Photo courtesy of Bangsamoro Information Office}

The Ministry for Transportation and Communication has a new head — lawyer-accountant PaisalinTago, vice Dickson Hermoso, a retired Army Colonel Dickson Hermoso who served as Assistant Secretary at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process prior to his appointment as MOTC Minister in July 2019. 

Reappointed are Mohagher Iqbal as Minister for Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE); lawyer Naguib Sinarimb as Minister for Interior and Local Government (MILG);  lawyer Raissa Jajurie as Minister for Social Services and Development (MSSD),  Engr. Aida Silonga as Minister for Science and Technology (MOST), Architect Eduardo Guerra as Minister for Public Works (MPW),Muslimin Sema as Minister for Labor and Employment (MOLE),  lawyer Ubaida Pacasem as Minister for Finance, and Budget and Management (MFBM); Abou Amri Taddik as Minister for Trade, Investments and Tourism (MTIT); Hamid Aminnodin Barra as Minister for Human Settlements and Development (MHSD); Mohammad Yacob as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR),  Hussein Muñoz as Minister for Public Order and Safety (MPOS), Melanio Ulama as Minister for Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs (MIPA) and Akmad Brahim, Minister for Environment and Natural Resources (MENRE). 

Pacasem, Brahim and Sema were appointed Ministers in March this year. 

Deputy Health Minister Abas Dr. Zul Qarneyn Abas is OIC for Health. 

Muslima Abubakar Asmawil, a Member of Parliament in the previous BTA, is now Deputy Minister (DM) for MENRE. 

Reappointed as Deputy Ministers are Abdul Maomit Tomawis for MPW;  Haron Meling for MBHTE; Atty. Sukarno Abas for MTIT; Ms Ammal Solaiman for MAFAR, Abdulkudos Balitok for MPOS, Guimal Abdulrahman for MIPA and Dr. Zul Qarneyn Abas for Health. 

Abunawis Maslamama, former DM for MOTC, is now DM for MILG; ; Muhammad Ameen Abbas, Commissioner of the Bangsamoro Telecommunications Commission is now DM for MOTC. 

The other Deputy Ministers are Tommy Nawa for MOLE; Amilbahar Amilasen for MFBM; and Edsel Mohammad Jilhano for MOST. 

Butch Malang, who served as chair of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) was named as Administrator for BARMM’s Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato. 

Misuari’s daughter, Nur-ainee, President of Al Husna Foundation Inc., in Zamboanga City, is a newly-inducted Shari’ah counselor who earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates in 2004 and her  Masters in Development Management at the Asian Institute of Management in 2017. 

^{Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez (R), beside Nur Misuari’s children, Nur-Ainee, Nurredha and Abdulkarim . On the extreme left is lawyer Randolph Parcasio, a Member of Parliament file Abdulkarim and Nurredha. Beside Parcasio is Nur Misuari, after the inaugural session of the Bangsamoro Parliament on 15 September 2022. MindaNews photo by CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS}

In 2018, Nur-Ainee was chosen by the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation as one of 4 DigiBayanihan or DB Champions, promoting digital literacy, digitally-enabled literacy, and digital citizenship to communities across the Philippines.

Two other children of Misuari – Abdulkarim, his eldest with first wife Desdemona Tan, and Nurredha, his eldest with third wife Tarhata Ibrahim – are among the 80 who took their oath as Members of Parliament before President Marcos in Malacanang on August 12. 

The Misuari patriarch attended the inaugural session of the BTA on September 15 in Cotabato City.  Onstage, Marcos was flanked by the MNLF’s Misuari to his right and the MILF’s Ebrahim. 

This is the first time the MNLF under Misuari participated in the MILF-led BTA. 

The MNLF under Muslimin Sema and Yusoph Jikiri, participated in the MILF peace process by nominating in 2017 members to the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, the body tasked to draft the Organic Law for the BARMM. Sema’s group also nominated members the first BTA (2019 to 2022) and BTA 2. 

Muslimin Sema has been reappointed Labor Minister. His son, lawyer Omar Yasser, was reappointed as MP.  Jikiri’s eldest son, Albakil, was reappointed as Deputy Chief Minister.  (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)