Ex-Cotabato archbishop to sit in BARMM advisory body

Cardinal Orlando Quevedo —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

COTABATO CITY—Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has appointed retired Cotabato archbishop, Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, OMI, as representative of settler communities to the regional government’s Council of Leaders.

The notice of selection for the 84-year-old Quevedo was signed by Ebrahim on July 14 and released by his office on July 20, according Bangsamoro parliament member Susana Anayatin.In appointing Quevedo, Ebrahim said the representation was coterminus with him and valid until the end of his term of office, unless otherwise removed for cause.

“May Cardinal Quevedo perform his duties and responsibilities to better serve his represented sector anchored [in] moral governance,” a statement from Ebrahim’s office said.

Ebrahim will step down on June 30, 2025, unless retained by the regular parliament after winning a seat in next year’s parliamentary elections.

Supporter

Anayatin, who is from the region’s community of Christian settlers, welcomed the cardinal’s inclusion into the advisory body, noting that Quevedo has been a passionate supporter of the Bangsamoro peace process.

The group that Quevedo helped convene, the Friends of Peace, had lobbied before Congress for the passage of the proposed legislation that would become the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the BARMM’s charter.

The cardinal’s family hailed from Laoag City in Ilocos Norte province but migrated to Mindanao in the 1940s and settled in Marbel town, now Koronadal City, in South Cotabato.

During his more than 59 years of religious life assigned in various places of the Oblates’ mission territory in Mindanao, Quevedo had witnessed the cruelties of war and vowed to help end it and bring an end to historical injustices.

In his pitch for peace, Quevedo had advocated the idea that Muslims, Christians, the Lumad (indigenous peoples) and people of all faiths in Mindanao and the country must strive to live together in mutual coexistence in order to end generations of strife.

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—EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ