Faces of the News: June 29, 2025
Abdulraof Macacua
Faced with mounting complaints from the people about alleged anomalies in the regional government, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua ordered the members of his Cabinet to tender their courtesy resignations by the end of the month.
This is to give him the opportunity to reorganize the Cabinet and see whether it had met the public’s high expectations that the BARMM could make a big difference in their lives.
Known among Moro revolutionaries as “Sammy Gambar,” Macacua said the allegations of malfeasance reached him through text messages after he made his personal phone number public last March, right after he assumed the BARMM’s top post.
“My phone smoked from the sheer volume of text messages that came in,” he said in jest. He lamented that the moral governance set in place by his predecessor, Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, had come under attack due to the complaints.
Among them was the alleged delay in the release of employee salaries and contractors’ billings, among others. —RYAN D. ROSAURO
Marcelino Teodoro
Outgoing Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro has removed a major roadblock to his next post the city’s congressman for the first district. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc on June 25 reversed the decsision of its First Division canceling Teodoro’s certificate of candidacy (COC), thus lifting the suspension of his proclamation as representative-elect.
According to the poll body, the petitioners against Teodoro failed to prove that he lied in his COC regarding his residency. The petitioners, which included his ally-turned-opponent, outgoing Sen.
Koko Pimentel, accused Teodoro of falsely claiming to be a resident and registered voter at Barangay San Roque over the past year and a month, in violation of the Omnibus Election Code.
They alleged that Teodoro was supposed to run for congressman of the second district and had already applied for a transfer of his registration records to Barangay Tumana.
But “apparently realizing that the odds are stacked against him,” he decided to transfer back to San Roque days before the COC filing period, they said. Teodoro described the Comelec decision as “a victory for the people of Marikina.” —DEXTER CABALZA
Dylan Harper
The San Antonio Spurs added some Pinoy flavor to their rebuilding roster when they selected Dylan Harper with the second overall pick in the NBA Draft that took place June 25 in Brooklyn, New York.
Harper became the fourth active player in the league with Filipino lineage, joining the Utah Jazz’s Jordan Clarkson, Jared McCain of the Philadelphia 76ers and Jalen Green, who was recently traded to the Phoenix Suns.
Harper traces his Pinoy roots from his maternal side, with his grandmother Lilia hailing from Bataan province.
His mother Maria Pizarro gained attention on social media for her looks during the Draft. She’s far more than that, though, being a basketball coach herself.
But Harper has a celebrated dad in Ron Harper—yes, one of the main cast members of the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat in the 1990s.
The younger Harper will be tasked to help the Spurs progress further alongside their star big man Victor Wembanyama. San Antonio picked second behind the Dallas Mavericks, who used the top pick to take Duke star Cooper Flagg. —JONAS TERRADO
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played the starring role in the young Oklahoma City Thunder’s rise to become champions of the 2024-25 NBA season.
Gilgeous-Alexander emerged as the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player behind a stellar series that saw the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in seven games for the franchise’s first NBA title since moving from Seattle in 2008.
The Finals MVP was a capper to a season of greatness for the man they call “SGA,” who aside from capturing the season MVP was also the MVP of the Western Conference Finals.
It’s also ironic that Gilgeous-Alexander was at the forefront of the slow journey the Thunder had to make before lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
In the 2019 offseason, Oklahoma dealt Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for veteran Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks and two swaps and Gilgeous-Alexander, who had just completed his first season in Tinseltown.
The rest was history. The Thunder won Game 7 after weathering a determined Pacers squad that lost Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles injury. —JONAS TERRADO
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
At least on the surface, Iranians and Israelis are returning to normal life after a US-brokered ceasefire on Tuesday ended 12 days of air strikes, missile barrages and covert operations between the two nations.
But the question on the minds of Iranians is: Where is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? The 86-year-old Supreme Leader, who reportedly hid in a bunker at an undisclosed location to escape Israeli fire that wiped out Iran’s military top brass and killed its leading nuclear scientists, has neither been seen nor heard from for nearly a week now.
Some are worried he could be dead. US President Donald Trump, exuberant over US attacks that “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities on Sunday, said he would seek a deal from Iran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks next week.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said the war had exposed the weakness of Iran’s “paper tiger” leadership, predicting that Khamenei would be toppled in a peaceful revolution. Khamenei became Supreme Leader in 1989 after the death of the republic’s founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
