MNLF leader's son defeats veteran in Cotabato village polls

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A 23-year-old son of the chairman of the largest group in the Moro National Liberation Front defeated a veteran in Monday’s race for the chairmanship of one of the city’s vote-rich barangays.

Datu Mohammad Abduljabbar Sema defeated by a wide vote-margin re-electionist Jimmy Sandigan, chairman of Barangay Rosary Heights 7 here.

The newly elected barangay chairman is also known as 'Haring Bakal' among peers and his supporters.

Sema is son of former Cotabato City’s vice-mayor, Muslimin, chairman of the largest and most politically active faction in the MNLF, which has actively been supporting the peace effort of President Benigno Aquino III with southern Moro communities.

Sema’s matriarch, Rep. Bai Sandra Sema, is a scion of the influential Sinsuat clan in the first district of Maguindanao.

A relative of the lawmaker, Al-Haashir 'Omboy' Ala, also won in his bid for a second term as chairman of the Barangay Rosary Heights 13, also a densely populated area here.

Many of Ala’s supporters have complained of having allegedly been disenfranchised deliberately to prevent him from winning.

Ala is son of former Assemblyman Tommy Ala of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who had also served as regional director of the Department of Agriculture in Region 12.

Ala’s defeated rival, Basilio Rosal, is patriarch of his lone rival in the 2010 barangay elections.