BARMM chief to newly elected village execs: Support ‘moral governance’

Bangsamoro Transition Authority Interim Chief Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim (Photo from his Facebook page)

COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao del Norte, Philippines — Bangsamoro Transition Authority Interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim rallied all newly elected barangay chairs in this city to support the region’s “moral governance” in performing their duties to the populace.

He asked village officials to protect the interest and the rights of their constituents after he administered the “oath of moral governance” to them on Monday in a ceremony attended by Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Abdulraof Macacua, Interior Minister Naguib Sinarimbo and Bangsamoro Deputy Senior Minister Abdullah Kusain.

“Moral governance means that the acts of the Bangsamoro government must be legal and legitimate; its policymaking, rational and responsible to its people and ensures checks, balances, and accountability to them,” Ebrahim told the some 37 newly elected village chairs and council members at Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the Bangsamoro government compound here.

“Moral governance” has become the battle cry of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), an expanded autonomous region run by former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels after the Bangsamoro Organic Law was ratified in 2019, a long process brought about by the 2014 peace deal between the former rebel group and the government.

Physical presence

Sinarimbo, on the other hand, reminded the newly elected village officials in the region’s 2,592 villages how best to illustrate the concept of moral governance in running the affairs of their barangay: “Stay in your [respective] villages, your physical presence is important in local governance. When people need you, you should be readily available, especially during hours of need, including office hours.”

Ebrahim also rallied village officials to strongly “fight the proliferation and use of illegal drugs and other evils of society.”

In their oath, the new village officials swore to perform their duties and responsibilities entrusted to them as part of the BARMM “with utmost dedication, devotion, honesty, justice, integrity, completely devoid of all the evils of governance, especially graft and corruption.”

The Ministry of Interior and Local Government would be providing orientation and local governance seminars to the newly elected village officials, Sinarimbo said.

The regional government has also put up transition teams to arrange for the fiscal and physical accountabilities of outgoing village officials and the coming in of the new ones, he added.

Elected village and Sangguniang Kabataan officials in 63 barangays in Cotabato province, known as the BARMM’s Special Geographic Area, separately took their oath of office and oath of moral governance before Ebrahim at 2 p.m., Monday, also at the city’s Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex.