Marcos retains Basileño as SPDA administrator
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 11:30 AM Thu Jul 7, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Gerry Salapuddin met in Malacañang Tuesday, July 5. (From SPDA)
COTABATO CITY - Residents of Basilan got elated with the retention by Malacañang of the Basileño administrator of the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA).
Gerry Salapuddin, first appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte, took oath in Malacañang last Tuesday, July 5, as reappointed SPDA administrator.
The position was entrusted to him by the newly-elected President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
Salapuddin is a known peace advocate who had, in recent months, brought in investors from across the country and from abroad into the Bangsamoro region, now venturing into feasible agricultural projects.
He is personally known to the Marcos family since the 1980s.
Salapuddin, a staunch supporter of Malacañang’s peace process with Moro communities, was thrice wounded in combat while still chairman of the Basilan Revolutionary Committee of the Moro National Liberation Front.
He is from Tuburan, one of 11 towns in Basilan that also covers the cities of Lamitan and Isabela.
Residents of Basilan had posted on Facebook their gratitude to President Marcos for having reappointed Salapuddin as SPDA administrator.
Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay, also a staunch supporter of the Southern Mindanao peace process, said he is glad with the stay in the SPDA of a fellow Basileño.
“It is important for the SPDA to be managed by someone who understands the intricacies of the Mindanao peace process,” Furigay said.