South Cotabato gov denies coercing mayors to support MILF party

INQUIRER FILES

COTABATO CITY — As election fever heats up barely three months before the filing of certificates of candidacy, South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo denies coercing Bangsamoro mayors to vote for the official party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the former rebel group that signed a peace deal with the government.

Tamayo, president of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), found himself in the “eye of a storm,” after Mayor Raida Maglangit of Kapatagan, Lanao del Sur, spoke in a gathering of the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition (BGC) leaders in Tawi-Tawi on Saturday and later in Maluso, Basilan on Sunday, saying that mayors who joined the June 24 gathering in Malacañang had been coerced to support the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) in the upcoming elections and that those who failed to do so were threatened with a financial audit.

“I didn’t say that, I was misinterpreted,” Tamayo said in a radio interview here. “What I said was that the Marcos administration wanted the practice of good governance to serve as a model for other local government units and make the BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) a model for the proposed federal form of government,” added Tamayo, president of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP).

“I told them (mayors) if they have good governance, we will take a peek so that it can be replicated in other parts of the country,” Tamayo said.
“When I said take ‘a peek,’ they concluded it was a COA audit,” he added.

However, according to a statement from the BGC,  the mayors present in the Malacanang meeting belied Tamayo’s statement.

“We were told to support UBJP in the coming elections and if we don’t, our towns will be audited by the Commission on Audit (COA),” Maglangit said, naming Tamayo, president of PFP to have said it during the gathering of Bangsamoro mayors in Malacañang on June 24.

“Why do you dip your fingers in BARMM local politics, are you from BARMM?” Maglangit said in her speech on Saturday, rebuking Tamayo.

Bullying, harassment

In Maluso town of Basilan province the next day, Sunday, former Sultan Kudarat Gov. Suharto Mangudadatu, the Technical Education and Skills Development (Tesda) Secretary and leader of the Al-Ittihad Party, chided Tamayo for bullying the mayors.

“We’re neighbors, you’re bullying the mayors, that’s not good,” Mangudadatu said in a chance interview after their grand launching of the BGC at Maluso gymnasium.

He called Tamayo “taymanuk,” (vernacular for chicken manure) for offending and “harassing” the mayors.

“Actually I was not bullied, but I was coerced and harassed online when I said I was pressured by Governor Tamayo,” Maglangit said.

She said she was still holding herself back from speaking in the open. “I will speak up later but I want to make it clear that Tamayo has no right to speak for the BARMM people. I question why he is so much invested in BARMM and that we have the right of suffrage and the people have the right to choose who will lead them,” she added.

Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman said leadership in the BARMM must be inclusive and that people should refrain from harassing local leaders who did not want to support bets endorsed by UBJP and MILF leaders.

Truth

The BGC released a statement on June 30 calling for truth and accountability on the reported coercion of BARMM mayors to vote for UBJP.

“The BGC calls for the truth to come out. It calls on those who subvert the truth to be accountable, along with those who would go against the principles of fair, transparent, and peaceful elections, principles that have been espoused by the national leadership, foremost among them President Ferdinand Marcos,” the coalition said in a statement.

“The BGC reiterates its June 25 statement thanking and lauding the President for his strong, consistent, and clear policy towards peaceful, accountable, and transparent elections in the BARMM. We shall not be deterred by persons or groups who promote positions that are contrary to the President’s policies and pronouncements,” the statement said.

“BGC will not waver and will continue to support the President’s agenda for sustainable peace and security in the BARMM.