BARMM's new agriculture minister takes office

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November 11, 2026 | 6:16pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives in two Bangsamoro provinces and members of the parliament in the autonomous region assured on Tuesday, November 10, to continue supporting the pro-poor programs of their agriculture ministry with a new minister now in its helm.

An elected member of the Bangsamoro parliament, the lawyer Ishak Mastura, assumed on Tuesday as minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (MAFAR-BARMM) during a symbolic rite at its main office in Cotabato City on Tuesday, attended by his relatives, colleagues in the 80-seat lawmaking body and his predecessor, Abunawas Maslamama.

Maslamama is now a senior minister under the office of BARMM Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua, who, as figurehead of the Bangsamoro 80-member parliament, shall also oversee all of the ministries and support agencies under the Bangsamoro regional government.

Maslamama relinquished on Tuesday the MAFAR-BARMM minister's office to Mastura, whom he assured, in a message during the ceremony then, of his support for all of its programs and public service thrusts under his ministerial control.

Mastura was a former regional trade secretary of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and had, subsequently, also served as chairman of its regional government’s Regional Board of Investments for about a decade. The 27-year ARMM was replaced with a more empowered BARMM in 2019.

“I will support his being agriculture, fisheries and agrarian reform minister all the way, to the best I can,” Abunawas told reporters after his turnover of his office, as outgoing minister of MAFAR-BARMM, to Mastura.

The spouse of Mastura, Majadiya Biruar-Mastura, and her relatives, his siblings, Dustin Mastura and Bai Mariam April Mastura, who is a regional prosecutor in Region 12, and their parents, Datu Michael Mastura, a former congressional representative in the first district of the still undivided Maguindanao province, and Lourdes-Veloso Mastura, attended the event.

Maguindanao del Norte Vice Gov. Marshall Sinsuat, his spouse, Mayor Raida Tomawis Sinsuat of Datu Blah Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte, and a member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in the province, the provincial board member Michael Sinsuat, also witnessed the ministry leadership turnover rite.

Sinsuat, a first-term vice governor of Maguindanao del Norte, said he and members of their provincial board, which he leads as presiding officer, will support the implementation of all of MAFAR-BARMM’s activities aimed at boosting the productivity of farmers in their province.

“That is our commitment to Minister Mastura. We will do our best to support the implementation of the programs of the ministry now under him,” said Sinsuat, who, as vice governor, is also a ranking member of Maguindanao del Norte's multi-sector provincial peace and order council.

The territory of Maguindanao del Norte encompasses 12 towns that have vast swaths of land where villagers propagate rice and corn and other short-term crops, and are also dotted with swamps and crisscrossed by rivers that connect to Central Mindanao’s 220,000-hectare Ligawasan Delta, from where fisherfolk catch freshwater fish that they sell to markets in the province.

The hometown of the vice governor, the seaside Datu Blah Sinsuat on the west coast of Maguindanao del Norte, is touted as the deep-sea fishing capital of the province and one of the new investment hubs in BARMM owing to its having had a zero crime record since 2019.