Kabunsuan gov bets to sign pact

COTABATO CITY – Police will broker a pact that would bind all three gubernatorial bets in the newly created Shariff Kabunsuan province to religiously abide by the Omnibus Election Code.

The three politicians – acting Shariff Kabunsuan governor Datu Bimbo Sinsuat, former Sultan Kudarat mayor Tucao Mastura, and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARM) governor Zacaria Candao – are related to each other by affinity through inter-marriages among members of their respective clans.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, ARMM police director, said the agreement will also obliged the three to help set a historical precedent for peaceful elections in the new province.

Goltiao said his assistants are now drafting the covenant with the help of Muslim and Christian religious leaders and non-government organizations involved in peace-building activities in the South.

Shariff Kabunsuan, whose area covers all 10 towns in the former first district of Maguindanao, was created by the ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Assembly last October.

A member of the ARMM legislature from 1990 to 1999, Sinsuat said he would focus his attention, if he wins, on viable programs that can accelerate the socio-economic growth of the fledgling Shariff Ka–bunsuan.

Mastura, a certified public accountant, said he wants to duplicate, if elected governor, the socio-economic feats of his hometown, Sultan Kudarat, where he was undefeated mayor in the 1980s.

A lawyer by profession, Candao, just like Mastura and Sinsuat, is also known for his advocacy for decentralized governance, amicable settlement of conflicts among Moro clans, and comprehensive Moro autonomy.

Unlike in Maguindanao, only two out of 10 mayors in the newly created province are running for re-election unopposed.