Saima B. Mamalo, a Legislative Staff Officer IV, is a proud Maguindaon hailing from Cotabato City. She is currently the Vice President for External Affairs of the Ateneo Law Student Advocates for Bangsamoro Rights (ALSABAR). She earned her bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan with full merit scholarship from the Henry Howard Scholarship Grant. In 2005, she earned a special diploma in Senior High School at Ridge High School at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, USA through a full scholarship from the AFS Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program. On the same year, she competed and won in numerous Forensic Speaking State Tournaments in the category of Original Oratory. In 2006, she competed in the same category at the All-American Forensics Invitational at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 2013, Sai has been working for the Bangsamoro from the very grassroots to the top-most echelon of the policy and decision-making body of the regional government. She was a project organizer for the BRAC Alternative Delivery Model (ADM) Project funded by the Australian government designed to bring alternative basic education to children in the far-flung conflict-affected and conflict-vulnerable communities in the Bangsamoro region. She also worked as a Monitoring & Evaluation and Communication Officer of the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) project of the Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). She then moved on to becoming an Information Officer at the Bureau of Public Information (BPI) under the wing of then ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman. Sai’s close and first-hand experience at being a part of the working committee of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) in drafting the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in 2017 thrusted her into the legal territory of policymaking and ultimately catapulted her into the legal field. In 2019, she was one of only 21 law students in the country who was selected to participate at the Legal Education Summit of the Supreme Court which proposed and launched amendments to the legal education and practice in the country. Sai is now a junior law student of the Ateneo de Davao University and a senior paralegal at Lopoz Fuentes-Lopoz & Associates. She is also a member of one of the biggest, strongest and longest-standing legal confraternity in the country, the Sigma Tau Mu Sorority of the Fraternal Order of St. Thomas More. On her downtimes, Sai is also tri-media content producer, a host, singer, and event-organizer. She has a podcast called Saichology – The Podcast which can be heard on Spotify and Apple Podcast.

Benyamen Sacampong H. Salic, a Legislative Staff Officer III, is a Meranao MA candidate in Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He finished his undergraduate degree, also in Islamic Studies, at the Mindanao State University-Main Campus (2014) under the support of three undergraduate scholarship grants. He is a Shari’a Counselor having placed 5th during the 2018 Special Bar Examinations for the Shariah Courts. He worked as Technical Staff in the local government unit of Quezon City where he facilitates the access and delivery of social services and advocates for preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE) in the Muslim communities of Quezon City. He then served as Technical Support Staff at the Department of Agrarian Reform-Office of the Undersecretary for Special Concerns where he coordinates with government agencies in streamlining the delivery of support services to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) and in facilitating the conduct of land surveys and implementation of land reforms in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur. Right before joining the PRLS, he continued working as Development Management Officer II at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) providing technical support in the development of plans, programs, activities, and use cases related to PSA’s promotion of the Philippine National Identification System (or PhilSys). Owing to his years of training as a student leader, community volunteer, his further studies as an Iskolar ng Bayan, and his stint in the central government administration — Mr. Salic has developed dependable skills in youth leadership, project management, development communication, and research. His research interests include the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines (PD1083), Philippine Madrasah Education, Halal and Islamic Banking, Meranao Social Institutions, and the Philippine Shari’a Justice System.

Abdul Wahid I. Tocalo, an Administrative Assistant VI, is a Meranao Licensed Professional Teacher. Through scholarships granted by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) of the Philippines, he finished his Secondary Education major in English undergraduate degree at Notre Dame University and his Master of Arts in English Language Education degree at De La Salle University – Manila. He received an Outstanding MA Thesis award for his thesis titled, “Formulaic Language across Asian Learners and Proficiency Levels: A Comparative Analysis of Types, Structures, and Functions of Lexical Bundles.” His undergraduate and graduate programs inculcated in him the development of competence in various trends related to teaching and research fields. As a former university lecturer at Notre Dame University, he taught English language, professional education, and research courses. He likewise experienced being an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher at De La Salle University – Manila. As a researcher, he believes in the importance of taking part in knowledge contribution through research publications in Scopus-indexed journals and research presentations at local and international conferences. At the same time, he experienced being a research reviewer of journals of several universities and a speaker at several talks related to research. He considers research studies related to Corpus Linguistics, World Englishes, English Language Teaching, Academic Writing, and (Critical) Discourse Analysis as his areas of interest. Currently, he pursues Juris Doctor at Notre Dame University.

Marc Herschad Dimacisil Pabillan, an Administrative Assistant IV, is a Maguindanaon who holds a BS Education with a major in General Education from South Upi College, Inc. He previously worked at the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies (IBS) as Admin Officer, which files office documents, receives call, and documents activities of the organization. Now working in the BTA under the PRLS as Administrative Aide II, he reports directly to the Legislative Measures and Legal Assistance Division to develop an improved management system for logging activity, calendar planning, records keeping, and as liaison to the main BTA offices delivering and receiving important documents.