Newly elected ARMM governor, vice governor appeal for sobriety
ARMM Governor-elect Mujiv Hataman. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Amid allegations of massive poll cheating in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, President Aquino’s anointed bets, now the region’s new governor and vice governor-elect, welcomed the scrutiny but appealed for sobriety.
“The sovereign will of the majority is under question, and it’s up to the duly constituted authorities to judge the veracity of these complaints,” said Mujiv Hataman, former ARMM caretaker, now elected governor.
His Liberal Party running mate Haruon Al-Rasheed Lucman Jr. said “this is democracy at work when the aggrieved parties are welcomed to air opposing views.” Lucman and Hataman called for unity in paving the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Political Entity, envisioned to replace ARMM.
The establishment Bangsamoro Political Entity is part of the peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Lucman used to be the ARMM interior and local government secretary while Hataman, as ARMM officer-in-charge, became President Aquino’s `trouble-shooter’ in making quick reforms to the bureacracy as the regional polls were reset to coincide with the just concluded May 13 midterm elections.
The President lauded Hataman’s caretaker role, tagging him as the “ARMM ghost-buster,” after ridding departments and offices of so-called ghost employees and ghost projects that yielded for the autonomous government close to a hundred million-peso savings.
Despite complaints that Hataman should have been considered resigned from being ARMM OIC when he filed his candidacy in December, the newly elected governor continued to hold on to his post, saying — “There is an existing jurisprudence to this effect” without elaborating.
Hataman, who was way ahead of closest rival Pax Mangudadatu of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, by posting a margin of over 200,000 votes, has invited the latter to help reinforce the ARMM reform agenda of the President.
“I am personally inviting him to a strategic planning session, a call for unity in the name of peace and prosperity for the Bangsamoro people,” said Hataman of the region-wide planned meeting of experts that the Regional Planning and Development Board envisioned.
The governor-elect intends to pursue the successful launching of HELPS (Health, Education, Livelihood, Peace interventions, and other Services) which benefited poor and neglected communities, but criticized for having been launched in the five provinces of ARMM in March as the poll campaign was about to start.
Other similar socio-economic-boosting activities, have also been launched by other offices, which the opposition considered to be the government machinery working for administration candidates.
Hataman, who garnered 446,227 votes over Mangudadatu’s 231,741, described the LP’s victory in the ARMM gubernatorial race as the “Voice of the Bangsamoro” wanting change for a much better future ahead.
Mangudadatu, along with other defeated candidates, called for a review of the canvassed votes in some areas, which were considered as “spurious.”
Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, endorsed the use of biometrics in the next scheduled balloting instead of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
Jaafar’s recommendation came after his son Butch Abo did not succeed in his bid for councilor of this city.
He said the MILF hierarchy now fears that cheating could happen in the plebiscite for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Government to replace ARMM may suffer the same fate.
Sought for comment, Regional Director Ray Sumalipao of the Commission on Elections said the use of the biometric system in the next elections “would be more credible because we will longer need poll watchers.”
“Only those whose finger prints match would be allowed to cast their votes. There will be no substitution and impossible for flying voters to do their thing,” Sumalipao said.
Hataman said elections always tend to be a divisive exercise, “but it is now time to move on.”
“Let us put aside our differences and concentrate on what unites us – the desire to bring progress and development to ARMM, our homeland. Let us devote our energy working together for the common good and interest of our people,” Hataman added.
With the planned abolition of ARMM by 2016, Hataman could be the last elected ARMM chief executive.
