GMA to present Lakas-CMD ARMM bets in Davao City today

DAVAO CITY – President Arroyo will proclaim today her anointed candidates for elective positions in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which is to hold its sixth regional elections on Aug. 11.

President Arroyo’s political protégés, ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and Vice Gov. Ansarudin Adiong, have filed their certificates of candidacy on May 29 under the banner of Lakas-Muslim, Christian De­mo­crats, which is chaired by the President herself.

Engineer Norie Unas, chief regional secretariat of Lakas-CMD for the autonomous region, said hundreds of political leaders from across ARMM will attend the proclamation of Ampatuan and Adiong in Davao City today.

Unas said Speaker Prospero Nograles, the national president of Lakas-CMD, will grace the event.

“We do not want to use the terms endorse or proclaim because the election period in the ARMM shall start on June 27. That is why we are using the term ‘presentation’ of candidates so that we will not have any legal problems with regard to the activity,” Lakas-CMD executive director Rey Roquero told The STAR yesterday. Roquero said Lakas-CMD shall hold today two events here at the Apo View Hotel that are rolled into one occasion. 

“For one, the first part in the morning would see the merger of the Lakas-CMD members in Region XI with that of the local officials belonging to the President’s Kabalikat ng Ma­mamayang Pilipino (KAMPI),” Roquero said. 

The President is expected to arrive here today at around 11:30 a.m. wherein she would immediately proceed to inspect the newly-finished ‘new generation’ Generoso Bridge at the Bankerohan public market here. 

Lakas-CMD key officials shall then brief the President on the proceedings before she will witness the formal forging of commitments of the Lakas-Kampi merger involving the officials in the four provinces in Southern Mindanao. 

Roquero said the second event in the Lakas-CMD meeting here would be the Presi­dent’s presentation of Ampa­tuan and his co-candidates for the ARMM elections. 

The President is also expected to meet with local military and police officials for a security briefing later in the afternoon at the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) headquarters inside the Philippine Navy’s Camp Panacan in Ba­rangay Panacan.  Mrs. Arroyo shall also tender a dinner for local officials at the newly-refurbished ‘Malacanang in Mindanao’ inside the equipment depot of the Department of Public Works and Highways, also in Panacan, just a stone’s throw away from the Eastmincom headquarters.