Shariff Kabunsuan's rival politicians to sign peace pact

COTABATO CITY – Rival politicians in Shariff Kabunsuan province, some of them locked in bloody, decades-old clan wars, will sit side-by-side on Friday to sign a peace covenant that would bind them to abide the Omnibus Election Code.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, said candidates for various positions in all 10 towns of the newly created Shariff Kabunsuan province have signified willingness to sign the covenant before Christian and Muslim religious leaders.

"The covenant will enjoin all of them not to resort to the use of violence and cheating in furthering their respective political interests during the May elections," Goltiao told The STAR yesterday.

Goltiao said the signing of the peace covenant will be held inside Camp S.K. Pendatun, the regional command center of the ARMM police in Parang, Shariff Kabunsuan.

"The venue is a neutral ground so we are certain all of the candidates would come on Friday to join the forging of common election peace covenant," Goltiao said.

Local observers are certain of a close fight between two among three aspirants for governor in the May 14 elections.

Shariff Kabunsuan’s acting governor, Datu Bimbo Sinsuat, is confident of an immediate score of almost 30,000 votes from his hometown, Datu Odin Sinsuat, where his brother is running for mayor virtually unopposed.

His closest rival, Tucao Mastura, on the other hand, is certain of about the same number of votes, or even more, from Sultan Kudarat, where he was mayor for three consecutive terms, and from neighboring Sultan Mastura municipality, whose re-electionist mayor is his younger sibling.

"Gov. Sinsuat and former mayor Mastura will fight it out in the hinterland municipalities of Buldon, Barira, Matanog, and Parang, which are populated by ethnic Iranon Muslims," a Catholic priest involved in multi-sectoral crusade for honest and peaceful elections, told The Star.