President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday Bangsamoro government interim chief minister Al Haj Murad Ebrahim has agreed that Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol would be the national government's "point man" at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

This was after Duterte's meeting with Murad and other BARMM officials on Wednesday night.

"Yes," Duterte said when asked during an interview if Murad agreed to have Pinol as his point man in BARMM by appointing him as head of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).

He reiterated Pinol is qualified to be the MinDA chief and his coordinator with BARMM because he was born and grew up in Mindanao. He is a farmer and also became a governor.

"I’m sure he can help the BARMM and the government to fast track everything," he said.

Duterte said he was most interested to see that the Moro people would finally attain what they have been asking and fighting for.

The creation of BARMM and installation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-led Bangsamoro Transition Authority were part of the peace agreement between the government and the Muslim rebels.

Murad is the chairman of the MILF.

Duterte apparently had to seek consent of the MILF on Pinol's new appointment because the latter was one of the oppositors of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain, which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2008.

MOA-AD was supposed to pave the way for the peace pact between the government and the MILF. Celerina Monte/DMS