Deceased Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Member of Parliament Abdul Dataya. (Photo courtesy of BPI-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY -- A member of parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) died of illness on Tuesday, BARMM officials said.
Abdullah Cusain, deputy executive secretary of BARMM Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim, said the 65 year-old Member of Parliament (MP) Abdul Dataya, died of heart ailments at about 11 a.m. in a hospital in Davao City.
Dataya, a lawyer and an ethnic Maguindanaon, was one of the 41 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) named by President Rodrigo Duterte to the 80-man BARMM parliament.
“The Philippine flag is now flown at half-mast inside the BARMM compound as the whole region mourns the passing of MP Dataya,” Cusain told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview.
In March, MILF leader Ghadzali Jaafar also died of cardiovascular illness.
Jaafar, also MILF vice chair for political affairs, passed away before he could assume and preside as parliament speaker during the inaugural session of the parliament on March 29, 2019. Lanao del Sur lawyer Pangalian Balindong was instead named as parliament speaker.
Dataya hails from Barangay Cudal of Pagalungan town in Maguindanao, also the birthplace of MILF founding chair Salamat Hashim who died in 2003.
Aside from BARMM parliament member, Dataya was also the executive director for Maguindanao of United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political arm of the MILF and chair of the MILF Ad Hoc Joint Action Group for the Government of the Philippines - MILF ceasefire committee. (PNA)
