COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 17 Aug)—The newly created Maguindanao del Norte province is once again in deep political turbulence after appointed OIC Vice Gov. Bai Ainee Fatima Sinsuat assumed as governor, citing a Supreme Court ruling that she said recognized her claim as the “valid” acting governor.
Bai Ainee Fatima Sinsuat and Abdulraof Macacua. Photos from their Facebook pages
But Abdulraof Macacua, who was appointed as OIC governor by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is still functioning as governor.
Lawyer Ronald Torres, Sinsuat’s legal consultant, said that his client has reassumed the post of governor of Maguindanao del Norte since Monday, August 14.
The current case stemmed from Sinsuat’s writ of mandamus case filed before the Supreme Court to compel the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) of the Department of Finance to fill the vacant post of provincial treasurer of Maguindanao del Norte after her request was not acted upon.
The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MILG-BARMM) and the BLGF earlier declined Sinsuat’s request, noting that she had no authority because she was not the governor, citing Section 50 of Republic Act 11550, the law that divided the erstwhile Maguindanao province into two.
Section 50 provides that if RA 11550 is approved and ratified within six months or more before the May 2022 national and local elections, “the vice governor and the next ranking elective member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the present Province of Maguindanao, who are residents of the new Maguindanao del Norte shall assume as its acting governor and acting vice governor, respectively.”
But RA 11550 was ratified in a plebiscite only in September 2022, four months after the elections.
Shortly after the plebiscite, Sinsuat, as the elected vice governor of the undivided Maguindanao province, and Datu Sharifudin Mastura, elected as the number one provincial board member of the then undivided Maguindanao, took their oath as acting governor and vice governor, respectively, of Maguindanao del Norte.
But in April 2023, President Marcos Jr. appointed a different OIC governor, Abdulraof Macacua, who at that time was BARMM Senior Minister, and was the chief of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.
The President also appointed Sinsuat as the OIC vice governor.
But this apparently did not sit well with Sinsuat.
Then came the recent Supreme Court ruling, promulgated on June 26, 2023 but made public only on Aug.
8, that recognized Sinsuat as governor and Mastura as vice governor.
“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,” the high court ruled.
Torres said the “Supreme court order is clear” on the validity of Sinsuat’s assumption as acting governor and Mastura as vice governor.
But lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM spokesperson and MILG-BARMM Minister, said the SC decision is not yet final and executory and they still have 15 days to file a motion for reconsideration from the moment they will receive a copy of the SC ruling.
He further said that the case brought by Sinsuat to the high court had nothing to do with the “validity of the appointment of Gov. Abdulraof Macacua and the power of the President to appoint a governor for Maguindanao del Norte.”
Sinarimbo added that the SC ruling has not disturbed Macacua’s appointment at all, and thus he is still sitting as governor. (Ferdinandh Cabrera / MindaNews)
