Ex-military exec joins Bangsamoro cabinet

OPAPP Assistant Secretary Dickson Hermoso (center) addresses the Region 12 police force based in General Santos City. Hermoso was recently appointed by BARMM Interim Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim as Minister of Transportation and Communication. Photo courtesy of OPAPP

COTABATO CITY –– A veteran of the Moro rebellion in Mindanao has been appointed minister at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the first and only Christian former military official to hold a top position in the newly created political entity.

Retired Army Colonel Dickson Hermoso, former spokesperson of the 6th Infantry Division (ID), was installed BARMM Minister for Transportation and Communications effective July 15.

BARMM interim Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim signed the appointment of Hermoso, who is currently an assistant secretary at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

“(My appointment is) true to what is the essence of the Bangsamoro—that it is a convergence of Moro, Christian, and IP (indigenous peoples) communities,” he told the Inquirer on Tuesday.

After almost three decades, Hermoso retired from military service in 2016 as inspector general of the 6th ID, fighting the war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces in Central Mindanao.

The government and the MILF, chaired by Ebrahim, signed the final Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in 2014 after four decades of conflict that killed over 120,000 persons, including civilians.

The CAB’s key component is the creation of a new Bangsamoro region, now known as BARMM.

The BARMM replaced the 29-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in February following the ratification of the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, popularly called the Bangsamoro Organic Law.