DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 May) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Leo Tereso Abellera Magno as the new chair of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), replacing Ma. Belen Sunga-Acosta whose six-year term was “terminated for cause due to loss of trust and confidence,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Wednesday.
Acosta, who maintains “the law is on my side,” was appointed MinDA chair by then President Rodrigo Duterte in January 2022 for a six-year term that is supposed to end in January 2028. Magno was appointed MinDA chair by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on May 13, 2024 and took his oath before Bersamin on Tuesday morning, May 21.
In his letter to Acosta dated May 22, Bersamin, who was appointed by Duterte as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (2018 to 2019), said Acosta’s statement on May 20 that the post of MinDA chair is “not officially vacant” hence “replacement is not warranted” is “utterly untenable for being contrary to existing laws and relevant jurisprudence.”
He stressed that Acosta’s replacement “was effective and valid upon the assumption of your successor,” referring to Magno, on May 21.
“By that event, your term of office was terminated for cause due to the loss of trust and confidence in you on the part of the appointing power,” Bersamin said.
Presidential Assistant for Eastern Mindanao Leo Tereso Abellera Magno takes oath as the new chair of the Mindanao Development Authority before Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in Malacanang on 21 May 2024. Photo courtesy of OPAMINE
Magno’s oath-taking came the morning after Acosta released her “not officially vacant” statement on Monday evening in response to reports that a new chair had been appointed.
In a general staff assembly livestreamed from the MinDA office on Wednesday morning, Acosta said: “Up to this point, I have not received any explanation from Malacanang,” she said, referring to the appointment of a new MinDA chair while still serving her term.
Bersamin’s “explanation” of her removal from office in his May 22 letter to Acosta, came nine days after the appointment of Magno and one day after his oath-taking. The letter reached Acosta late Wednesday afternoon.
“Given the nature of the position of Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority as primarily confidential and policy determining, the President as the appointing power validly and effectively removed you for cause due to loss of his trust and confidence in you,” Bersamin wrote.
Secretary Ma. Belen Sunga-Acosta, chair of the Mindanao Development Authority, joins President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in welcoming Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the Kalayaan Grounds in Malacanang on 1 March 2023. Photo courtesy of RTVM
Asked to comment, Acosta told MindaNews: “does not apply because of RA 9996.”
“Loss of confidence is not normally a ground for removal for cause,” Law professor Antonio La Vina said. Removal for cause, he told MindaNews,
“usually means malfeasance or gross negligence in the performance of one’s duties.”
“The law is on my side”
Acosta has repeatedly invoked Section 7 of Republic Act 9996, the law creating MinDA, which mandates that the MinDA chair “shall serve a term of six (6) years from the date of his/her appointment unless removed for cause.”
Acosta said she has no pending civil, criminal, or administrative cases and has never been convicted of any crime, and that she has been recognized by various agencies and organizations for good governance and exemplary brand of public service.
At the assembly Wednesday morning, she told her staff: “Hindi po ako magre-resign. (I will not resign). I will stand my ground and let the legal remedy take its natural course. I will be here for as long as I am needed. Nandito po ako (I am here). I will not resign.”
“RA 9996’s mandate is clear as day…. I still have my mandate and the law is on my side,” she said.
Ma. Belen Sunga-Acosta speaks at the General Staff Assembly of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) on Wednesday morning, 22 May 2024, She would receive a letter from Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin late Wednesday afternoon that roon that she was “terminated for cause due to loss of trust and confidence.” Screengrab from the livestreamed MinDA assembly
According to the law that created MinDA in 2010, the chair is appointed by the President and holds a Cabinet rank. The chair is also the Philippine Senior Official for BIMP-EAGA (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area) and ex officio member of the Board of the National Economic Development Authority and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority.
MinDA is tasked to “promote, coordinate and facilitate the active and extensive participation of all sectors to effect the socioeconomic development of Mindanao.”
“Confidential and policy-determining”
In explaining why Marcos removed Acosta as MinDA chair, Bersamin maintained that the position of MinDA chair is “primarily confidential and policy-determining in nature.”
He noted that the chair’s duties and responsibilities include supervising the implementation of Mindanao-wide and/or Mindanao-specific inter-regional programs, convening the BIMP-EAGA Advisory Board, and advising the President on Mindanao-related matters.
“Clearly, it is primarily confidential and policy determining in nature,” he wrote.
Citing the case of De Los Santos v. Mallare, Bersamin said the Court explained that confidence “denotes not only confidence in the aptitude of the appointee for the duties of the office but primarily close intimacy which insures freedom of intercourse without embarrassment or freedom from misgivings of betrayals of personal trust or confidential matters of state.”
From PA for Eastern Mindanao to MinDA
Before his appointment as MinDA chair, Magno was appointed by President Marcos as Presidential Assistant for Eastern Mindanao in November 2022. In July 2023, Marcos appointed him Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) for Southern Mindanao.
Unlike MinDA, the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Eastern Mindanao (OPAMINE) was not created by law but by Marcos.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrives to inaugurate the Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project Stage II in Pikit, North Cotabato on April 29, 2024 with North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Talino Mendoza (to his right) and Presidential Assistant for Eastern Mindanao Leo Magno beside her. Photo courtesy of OPAMINE
OPAMINE’s website states that it is “the personal representative of the President in Eastern Mindanao.”
According to the “About Us” section of the website, “OPAMINE study (sic) and submits findings, make (sic) recommendations to the President on various concerns within the regions. We monitor, evaluate, advise the President on critical and urgent matters and issues concerning Eastern Mindanao. We also coordinate with various government agencies, local government units, facilitate and strengthen private and public collaboration.”
There is no Presidential Assistant for Western Mindanao or Southern Mindanao or Northern Mindanao.
From MEDCo to OPAMIN to PARECO to MinDA
Then President Corazon Aquino issued Executive Order No. 512 on March 19, 1992, establishing the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo) “to coordinate and promote the socio-economic development of Mindanao, integrating regional plans and advocating national policies for the region’s growth.”
Aquino, the first President after People Power ousted the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, stepped down as President on June 30, 1992 and was succeeded by her Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos.
Ramos created the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Mindanao (OPAMIN) two weeks after he took over as President in 1992 and named Paul Dominguez as Presidential Assistant for Mindanao. Dominguez resigned in early 1998 to campaign for the Presidential bid of Renato de Villa, and was replaced by lawyer Jesus Dureza.
President Fidel Ramos, ARMM Governor Nur Misuari and Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Paul Dominguez in Tawi-tawi on 15 July 1992. Photo by RENE B. LUMAWAG
It was also under Ramos where Aquino’s MEDCo was operationalized and where efforts to institutionalize a Mindanao development agency began.
OPAMIN, however, was abolished under the Estrada administration.
When Joseph Estrada took over as President on June 30, 1998, he issued Executive Order 7 creating the Presidential Assistant for Regional Concerns (PARECO) system where he named PARECOs nationwide, including two for Mindanao: PARECO for North and South Eastern Mindanao, and PARECO for Western and Central Mindanao.
The call to institutionalize MEDCo into what is now MinDA took nearly two decades.
Primarily supported by the Mindanao representatives to Congress, the bill creating MinDA was signed into what is now RA 9996 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on February 17, 2010. She named Dureza as the first MinDA chair.
The Aquino and Duterte administrations that followed (2010 to 2016 and 2016 to 2022) dealt with MinDA for Mindanao-related concerns. It was only in 2022 under the Marcos administration, that an office was created to be the President’s “personal representative” in a portion of Mindanao.
It is not clear if the OPAMINE will be abolished with Magno as MinDA chair.
Magno has yet to respond to queries, including when he will report to the MinDA office.
He told MindaNews in a text message late Tuesday night that after he attends to “events/visits this week up to the weekend,” he would “set a meet to answer questions.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews with a report from Antonio L. Colina IV)
