Sultans want participation in the Bangsamoro government

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur: Traditional leaders in the Lanao region urged the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to tap the participation in the transition government of the traditional leaders like the sultanates to help in the mediation and settling of disputes as support of the functions of the Shariah Courts as provided in the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

Sultan Nasser D. Sampaco, chairman of the influential Marawi Sultanate League said on Monday the traditional leaders should be represented in the BTA in order to help pacify and settle cases among Bangsamoro especially family feuds and conflicts or ‘Rido’ in accordance with the local Taritib and Ijma which is the most effective way of settling ‘Rido.’

The Marawi Sultanate League is an aggrupation of well-respected sultans and datus from the “Lima Pumagsopa sa Marawi” (5 Realms of Marawi) with the “Realm of Buadi Ibango” in the Islamic city of Marawi. It was organized in 1954 by the late Lanao Sultan and Marawi City Mayor Bato Ali.

Sampaco said the Maranao Taritib and Igma is widely recognized by the community which is very important in settling conflicts within their respective communities.

The late Dr. Mamitua Saber, Maranao historian and sociologist, opined in one of his works: “There are cases filed in courts but take too long to resolve due to endless judicial processes, while ‘Rido’ or family feuds among Maranao clans are easily settled by the local Taritib and Igma which is the traditional legal system authority.”

Meanwhile, lawyer Dimapuno “Pangnal” Datu Ramos, Sultan of Raya, one of the 28 royal legislatures of the “Pat a Pungampong a Ranao” (Four Lanao Prefectures) and former Lanao del Sur provincial vice governor, believed that the selection of BTA members was politicized.

“Frankly, there is no true sectoral representation in the BTA. President Duterte was given wrong information by close advisers,” Datu Ramos said.

It was learned that no influential traditional leader in the whole region was a BTA member and that at least three individuals who belong to a Maguindanaon family were appointed to the BTA.

Datu Ramos said, “If the BARMM has to succeed, its ministers and officials must be truly competent and qualified men of wisdom, honesty and consistent integrity whose principles could not be compromised and wisdom directed only to the wellbeing and welfare of the long-suffering, neglected and marginalized Bangsamoro people.”

The 80-member BTA headed by MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim as Interim Chief Minister serves as the interim government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) that replaced the ARMM by an enabling law, Republic Act No. 11054 also known as Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

Murad assumes the regional government leadership when Governor Hataman of the defunct ARMM turned over powers to Murad on Tuesday.

(MASIDING NOOR YAHYA and ASA T. MADALE)