ARMM officials to attend SORA

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – Five provincial governors and more than a hundred Muslim mayors are to “display force” during the Nov. 9 State of the Region Address (SORA) of the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to show to the opposition that only the administration party exists in the ARMM, officials said.

Organizers of the SORA, among them ARMM Speaker Rejie Sahali-Generale, said they are expecting national officials, representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and diplomats from member-states of the Organization of Islamic Conference and the European Union to grace the event.

Lawyer Oscar Sampulna, regional executive secretary of ARMM, said the SORA of the region’s chief executive, Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, will focus on vital concerns, among them the Mindanao peace process, the continuing support of foreign donors to local development initiatives, and the regional administration’s support to the on-going peace talks between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Sahali-Generale said local executives in their province will join their counterparts in attending the SORA, a yearly activity of the ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Assembly, to show the “political solidarity” of the five provincial governors and more than 100 mayors in the autonomous region.

Local executives in the ARMM, which covers Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, and Marawi, City, all in Central Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, are known for their seeming “canine loyalty” to President Arroyo and the Lakas-Kampi-Christian, Muslim Democrats party.

“The SORA will be a good opportunity for us, members of the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, to show to the whole nation that the ARMM is an administration stronghold and that we shall only have one voice during next year’s local and national elections,” Sahali-Generale said.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Sr., chairman of the administration party in his province, said he and his constituent-mayors are also to attend the SORA.

“We will not let this event take place without us showing to the people of Mindanao that we in the autonomous region have a solid, monolithic political block, led by our regional governor,” Adiong said.

So closely-knit are members of the administration party in the ARMM, particularly the mayors, that many of them are expected to seek re-election unopposed.

The ARMM’s planning director, Hadji Adel Dumagay, said all is set for the SORA of Ampatuan, his second since his re-election on August 8, 2008.

“What makes this SORA meaningful is that it will provide ARMM residents a good view of the regional leadership’s commitment to the peace process. I cannot give more details, let’s just wait and listen to Gov. Ampatuan’s SORA,” Dumagay said.

The ARMM’s police director, Chief Supt, Paisal Umpa, and the spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, both said security preparations are now underway to ensure the safety of 32-hectare compound here when Ampatuan delivers his SORA.