Former rebel leader to head Philippines' autonomous Muslim region

A former Muslim rebel leader who fought Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos's father as a teenager was elected on Friday chief minister of a southern self-ruled region formed after decades of armed conflict.

Abdulraof Macacua, 69, was elected by the 80-seat Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) assembly with 51 votes, an AFP reporter saw, a month and a half after regional elections in which his party fell short of winning a 41-seat majority.

His chief rival and former boss in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrilla group, Murad Ebrahim, got 27 votes as the region's first elected parliament convened for the first time.

One other member of parliament abstained, and another was absent due to illness.

Marcos, whose namesake father fought the Muslim insurgency that broke out in the south of the archipelago in the early 1970s, was the main guest at the parliament's opening ceremony.

"Winning the right to govern was a significant achievement. The successful conduct of the first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections was another historic step forward. Now comes the hard part," Marcos said in a speech to the body.

The regional government's role was to build a stable government "ensuring that the dividends of peace are felt in the daily lives of every Bangsamoro family", he added.

Macacua had been handpicked by Marcos to serve as the region's interim chief executive ahead of the election, a move made over the objections of the MILF's senior leadership.

Once brothers in arms, Macacua and Ebrahim parted ways shortly thereafter, setting the stage for September's battle at the ballot box.

The BARMM remains the country's poorest region with the lowest rates of literacy by official surveys.

Its government will still depend mostly on bulk cash transfers from the Philippine government, tentatively set at more than 115 billion pesos ($1.8 billion) in the proposed 2027 national budget.

TRT World / AFP — TRT World / AFP