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COTABATO CITY – Confusion on what congressional district Cotabato City now really belongs to following the creation of the 11-town Shariff Kabunsuan province last year, hounds the 124,000 registered voters here.

Thousands of residents staged a rally yesterday, where organizers took turns appealing to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the House of Representatives to focus attention on the issue.

Cotabato City was originally under the first district of Maguindanao, whose towns now comprise Shariff Kabunsuan, which the 24-seat Regional Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao created last year.

Lawyers Joseph Go and Hamlet Pahm, who were among dozens of lawyers who took part in the rally, said is it apparent in the ARMM charter, Republic Act 9054, that the region’s legislature is only empowered to create barangays, towns and provinces, but not establish or alter congressional districts.

“It is very clear, therefore, by operation of law, that the remaining areas of Maguindanao, which is the mother province of Shariff Kabunsuan, is outrightly divided into two long existing first and second districts, as established by Congress many decades ago,” Pahm said.

Since Cotabato City is not part of the autonomous region, the ARMM legislature did not include it as part of Shariff Kabunsuan in the charter of the new province.

“Under existing laws, Shariff Kabunsuan becomes one congressional district, one that does not cover Cotabato City,” said city legal officer Froebel Khan.

International lawyer Ishak Mastura, ARMM trade secretary, said Cotabato City can even qualify to be a lone district for it to have representation in Congress.

“Because (Cotabato City) may not be fused anymore with Maguindanao, being not a part of the ARMM,” Mastura said.

The rallyists called on the Comelec to reconsider its Resolution 7902, promulgated last May 10, which placed Cotabato City under the congressional district of Shariff Kabunsuan.

During a plebiscite in 2001, residents voted against the inclusion of Cotabato City in the expanded ARMM, which has administrative, political and territorial jurisdiction over the newly created Shariff Kabunsuan.

Eduardo de la Fuente Jr., the city mayor’s secretary, said he has received hundreds of letters from residents questioning the constitutionality of the Comelec resolution that the city belongs to the lone Shariff Kabunsuan congressional district. 

Due to the confusion, registered voters here voted for candidates for the congressional seat of Shariff Kabunsuan last May 14, despite assertions by dozens of lawyers, among them city councilors, that Cotabato City is not part of the province.