MNLF chairman retained as BARMM’s labor minister

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro leadership has rejected the courtesy resignation of the chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front as labor minister, the first to get retained from among all officials asked to leave for changes in the region’s ministerial structure.

Copies of the directive of Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim for Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema to remain in his post were received by reporters here on Tuesday afternoon.

Sema, chairman of the MNLF’s central committee, was among heads of different ministries and agencies who resigned last week as ordered by the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, who is figurehead of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The MNLF and MILF that both waged secessionist uprisings in Mindanao for decades, have separate peace compacts with the government and are partners in overseeing the development initiatives of the now four-year BARMM government.

“The rejection of BARMM’s chief minister of my courtesy resignation is an indication that he wants inclusivity, multi-sectoral involvement in managing the Bangsamoro government,” Sema said.

Ebrahim appointed early this week three incumbent members of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, the Catholic Susana Anayatin and the Muslim lawyers Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba and Anna Tarhata Basman, as director of the Office of Settler Communities, as head of the local government ministry and as regional attorney-general, respectively.

Peace advocates and officials of non-government organizations involved in women empowerment programs were elated with their appointments, for them good for the Mindanao peace process.

Sema said as a “retained” minister of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-BARMM, he shall continue their programs meant to empower and protect the rights of the labor sector in all six provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro region.