PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte named his first Moro appointee to the Cabinet, lawyer Guiling Mamondiong from Lanao del Sur, who will head the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
“Attorney Guiling Mamondiong will be the [director-general] of Tesda. It is a Cabinet position,” Duterte said during an Eid’l Fitr celebration in Davao City on Friday.
Mamondiong, who earlier served as undersecretary at the Department of Transportation and Communications during the administration of former President Gloria Arroyo, will replace TESDA Director-General Irene Isaac.
Duterte said Moro might be surprised “that there are only about three, four, or five Muslims who would be occupying Cabinet positions” but he explained that there will soon be a need for more Moros in government in the federal system he is envisioning.
“I am trying to do a framework and if I succeed in convincing everybody in Mindanao, if I could convince my [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] brothers and Nur Misuari of the [Moro National Liberation Front], there will be a reconfiguration of the territory and most of them will occupy the regional or state positions,” he said.
The only other Muslim in the Duterte Cabinet is Bai Yasmin Busran-Lao, also from Lanao del Sur, who heads the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella clarified that while Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo was appointed head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, she will have to get policy directions from Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco.
In his first executive order, Duterte tasked Evasco, a former mayor of Maribojoc, Bohol, to oversee 12 national government agencies, including the HUDCC, in implementing the new administration’s anti-poverty programs.
“Policy-wise, she works with Secretary Evasco,” Abella said in an interview with state radio station dzRB. “Basically she’s responsible to the President as Vice President and she relates to Jun Evasco, especially for policy.”
Another appointment was that of television host Arnel Ignacio, who was named assistant vice president for community relations and services department of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.