Duterte appoints  ex-director of OMA as new BTA member

COTABATO CITY –– President Duterte has appointed the former undersecretary and executive director of the defunct Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) as the 79th member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the body which currently serves as the interim government of the Bangsamoro.

Ali B. Sangki, the father of Maguindanao Governor Bai Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu, took his oath of office as the newest BTA member at the Office of the President in Malacaňang on January 8.

The BTA, which has legislative and executive powers, serves as the interim government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, an expanded autonomous region that replaced the former

Autonomou Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Sangki served as undersecretary and executive director of OMA from 2007 to 2010. He used to be the chief executive officer of the Al-Amanah Investment Islamic Bank of the Philippines from 2005 to 2007; a provincial board member in the second district of Maguindanao from 1992 to 2002, and project manager and department manager of the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) from 1975 to 1992.

He also served as a member of different technical working groups during the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and, later, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Sangki said peace and development must prevail in Mindanao to address the problems faced by the Moro people in Southern Philippines.

“In unity, there is strength; in solidarity, there is peace,’ Sangki said.

The BTA is supposed to have 80 members – 41 nominated by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and 39 nominated by the government.

“With the appointment of Sangki, the BTA now has 79 members,” said Lawyer Lanang Ali Jr., the BTA majority floor leader./lzb