Parang town mayor gets Comelec TRO vs rival

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Tension between two feuding political camps in Parang, Maguindanao has eased, following intervention of the poll body to restrain  Judge Bansawan Ibrahim of the Regional Trial Court here from enforcing his decision to unseat the town’s incumbent mayor based on an election protest filed by a rival in the 2010 elections.

Barangay leaders in Parang, a coastal town in the first district of Maguindanao, welcomed the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the central office of the Commission on Elections on November 26.

Alad Wali, chairman of Barangay Poblacion Dos in Parang said the TRO has effectively lowered the tension between the respective political supporters of their mayor, Ibrahim Ibay, and his rival, Talib Abo Sr.

Abo, who lost to Ibay during the 2010 mayoral race in the area, protested the mayor’s proclamation through the RTC here on grounds of alleged election anomalies.

In a ruling last month, the RTC here declared Abo as mayor of Parang, not Ibay.

Ibay’s supporters, among them barangay chairmen of vote-rich areas in Parang, said there were “technicalities” in the electoral case they want ironed out immediately through legal processes.

“We are grateful to the Comelec for having issued a TRO on the enforcement of the court ruling,” said Adnan Biruar, chairman of Barangay Tagudtungan in the same town.

Ibay’s counsel, lawyer Kirby Abdullah, said Abo has been given time to answer their petition for certiorari with preliminary injunction, with an urgent temporary restraining order, which they filed at the Comelec.

Abdullah, who is a volunteer counsel of big press clubs in Central Mindanao, said Ibay  vows to  uphold the law in seeking remedy to the legal tussle.

Abdullah said while the TRO is only a legal remedy, they are confident of getting a reversal of the lower court’s decision.

The Comelec’s order stated that it was fitting to issue the TRO in the “interest of justice.”

Hundreds of Ibay’s supporters staged separate rallies last month at the town proper of Parang and in the premises of the RTC inside the 32-hectare compound here of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to show indignation over the court ruling. - John Unson