FILE PHOTO
ILIGAN CITY — The Supreme Court has ruled that Bai Fatima Ainee Limbona-Sinsuat, the former Vice Governor of the defunct Maguindanao province, is the rightful holder of the gubernatorial seat of Maguindanao del Norte province.
In a decision promulgated on June 26, 2023 but released only on Tuesday, August 8, the Court said: “Sinsuat, as duly elected Vice-Governor of the Province of Maguindanao, and Mastura, as next ranking member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the Province of Maguindanao, validly assumed office as governor and vice-governor, respectively, of the Province of Maguindanao del Norte, but only in acting capacities until elections for the permanent officials to the said positions shall have been held.”
Sinsuat and Midtimbang assumed the posts in the newly created province sfter the ratification in a plebiscite of Republic Act No. 11550, which mandated the split of Maguindanao into Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur.
But these actions were not recognized by the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao because a transition mechanism was not provided for in the law.
The case stemmed from Sinsuat’s prayer before the High Court to compel the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) of the Department of Finance to recommend a candidate to fill the post of provincial treasurer of Maguindanao del Norte. Sinsuat complained that his request to the BLGF had not been acted upon.
The BLGF recommends to the Finance Secretary a candidate for appointment as treasurer of local government units. The BLGF has argued that Sinsuat has no legal personality to request for the appointment of a provincial treasurer.
But the Court said otherwise. “Sinsuat, as Acting Governor, has a clear legal right to recommend the appointment of the Provincial Treasurer of the Province of Maguindanao del Norte,” read the ruling of the Court’s Second Division penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier.
The decision was concurred by the four other members of the division.
This upsets the current arrangement whereby Abdulraof Macacua, the military chief of erstwhile rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was appointed and had been functioning as the province’s acting governor after his appointment by President Marcos into the post last April.
Sinsuat was also appointed vice governor and had since functioned as such.
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