ARMM officer-in-charge names Maguindanao native executive secretary

COTABATO CITY – Newly-installed officer-in-charge governor Mujib Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has named an ethnic Maguindanaon as his executive secretary.

Mujib Hataman. FILE PHOTO

Lawyer Anwar Malang was chosen from among many aspirants from Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi or “recommendees” of powerful politicians in the ARMM.

Hataman said he has decided to select Malang, a human rights lawyer, who was not identified with any political camp despite having served as three terms as councilor of Cotabato City.

Malang was a principal convenor of the Reform ARMM Now (RAN), a multi-sectoral group composed of more than 50 peace advocacy outfits in Mindanao.

It was responsible for mustering cross-section support for the enactment of R.A. 10153 that reset the ARMM’s supposed August 2011 elections to 2013 and empowered President Benigno Aquino III to appoint an OIC to introduce reforms in the regional bureaucracy.

Hataman, who hails from Basilan, said his having appointed Malang to a very sensitive position in the regional government is meant to show that he is keen on sharing power equitably with other qualified leaders from different areas in the autonomous region, regardless of their tribal and cultural identities.

“I am willing to share power with qualified non-Muslims as long as they have big hearts for the multi-cultured region,” Hataman said, adding that he will announce the composition of his official family and cabinet members in the first few days of January 2012.

Hataman and Bainon Karon of the Moro National Liberation Front, as OIC vice governor, were installed by Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo last Thursday.