ISABELA CITY, Basilan — Consistent with his reform policy of transparency in the regional governance and his commitment to streamline its bureaucracy, ARMM OIC Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman has put to test the competence of applicants for assistant secretary, undersecretary, bureau chiefs and administrators of the different departments and offices in the regional government.

Hataman stressed his leadership’s paradigm of “open governance” which will highlight transparency and equal opportunity for all constituents in the ARMM. He also made sure that each official under his term will faithfully adhere to the reform agenda that his administration is keen to implement in the region.

“They were chosen considering territorial and ethnic representation but not at the expense of merit and fitness to their respective positions,” he said earlier this week, after swearing in newly-appointed members of his cabinet.

ARMM Assistant Cabinet Secretary John Magno said that the two-day qualifying examinations held last Jan. 18 and 19 inside the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex is designed to give equal opportunities for all applicants who want to serve the region. He also assured that all applicants will undergo the proper process of screening.

Magno said that 163 applicants took the qualifying exams on the first day.

“Whoever will be chosen should have a strong commitment towards the reform agenda of the governor,” Magno said, who is also a member of the Screening Committee.

The screening committee will come up with a shortlist of applicants who passed the examinations who will again undergo interviews after which a final list of the chosen candidates will be submitted to the OIC Governor for his final selection and decision.

According to Magno, the new officials will be announced next week.

Applicants on the other hand, also expressed approval with the selection process being put into practice by the Hataman administration saying that the process gives equal opportunity to all who want to serve the region.

“This method of selection will eliminate the practice of political accommodation in the ARMM bureaucracy,” says some of the applicants who took the examinations.