Hataman to Cabinet: Shape up or ship out!

COTABATO CITY — Acting ARMM Governor Mujib Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) strongly warned Cabinet secretaries in the region that they must improve their performance or behavior or be shipped out from government service.
“The public expectation from us is very high after our accomplishments were recognized by President Aquino,” he told Cabinet officials after attending the president’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Manila.

In the SONA, Hataman was named by President Aquino as “certified ghost buster” after he cleansed the regional bureacracy from ghost teachers, ghost employees, ghost projects, ghost schools and all the “ghosts” that siphoned the ARMM coffers through the years.
The regional governor from Basilan was handpicked by President Aquino to institute reforms in the graft-ridden regional government.
He told the Cabinet officials and bureau heads that their offices should perform well even with limited budget.
“In ARMM nothing is impossible,” Hataman said, adding that he does not claim credit alone for the recognition cited by the President in his SONA.
“We still have more than a year, I hope we will get more recognition for doing our job correctly, I hope by next SONA, we have done what were expected of us,” Hataman said.