BTA Member of Parliament Aleem Zainoden P. Bato. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO (By the BARMM parliament)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is mourning the death of Aleem Zainoden P. Bato, a Moro revolutionary, who joined in 2019 the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority, the region’s interim government.
Bato, a native of Piagapo town, Lanao del Sur, died on Sunday, Aug. 15.
He was 76.
Bangsamoro government spokesperson and Interior Minister Naguib Sinarimbo said Bato was among the pioneers and pillars of the Bangsamoro struggle.
He was a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) central committee and headed the group’s Mujlis as-Shura or consultative council.
Along with the late Salamat Hashim, Bato was part of the group of young Moro students in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt who founded a jihadi movement in the early 1960s that would shape into the Bangsamoro struggle in Mindanao.
Bato is among the 41 MILF nominees to the BTA, which includes mostly aging revolutionaries who fought for Bangsamoro self-determination, whether on the battlefields or the negotiating table.
The establishment of the BARMM capped some two decades of political negotiations between the MILF and the central government on how to give shape to Moro self-governance aspirations.
Interim Bangsamoro parliament Speaker Pangalian Balindong paid tribute to Bato, an “ardent supporter of many legislative measures that aim to benefit the ordinary Bangsamoro.”
“His wisdom and experience were sought by many of his colleagues and, oftentimes, served as a conscientious adjudicator in heated debates,” Balindong added.
“The beloved Aleem will always be remembered for his service to our people, to our faith, and for believing in the Bangsamoro cause,” said a statement of Bangsamoro interim chief minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.
Bato is the fourth BTA member to have died. The others were MILF vice chair Ghadzali Jaafar on March 13, 2019; Abdul Dataya on July 9, 2019; and Moro National Liberation Front secretary-general Abdul Sahrin on Jan. 20, 2021.