President’s aunt runs for ARMM vice governor

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, an aunt of President Aquino who describes herself as “a Christian with a heart for Muslim Mindanao,” has thrown her hat in Mindanao’s political ring.

She is running for vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a special region set up by the government to help defuse the Moro demand for separatism.

Cojuangco filed her candidacy on Sunday amid uncertainty over whether the ARMM elections scheduled for this August will push through. The Aquino administration is seeking to postpone the polls for two years so they would be synchronized with the midterm elections in 2013.

The filing of the certificates of candidacy was supposed to end on Monday midnight, but the Commission on Elections (Comelec) moved the deadline to Wednesday midnight.

Cojuangco is the wife of the once powerful Rep. Jose Cojuangco, the President’s uncle. She is also a former governor of Tarlac province, the Aquinos’ political bastion.

Accompanied by her husband, Cojuangco filed her certificate of candidacy here on Sunday afternoon. She will be the running mate of former Sultan Kudarat Rep. Pax Mangudadatu, a veteran Muslim politician.

Fierce politics

Politics in the ARMM can be fierce. It was in that region where the “Maguindanao massacre” occurred in November 2009 involving the slaughter of at least 57 people, more than 30 of whom were journalists.

Members of the Ampatuan clan, who held sway in the region for years, have been charged with the murders.

Even if it is still unclear that the ARMM elections would push through, guns are already barking.

On Sunday, six supporters of Mangudadatu were wounded when their van was shot up by unidentified men along the highway at Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao.

Col. Mayoralgo dela Cruz, commander of the Army’s First Mechanized Infantry Brigade, said he was looking at “rido” (clan feud) and “politics” as probable motives behind the attack.

Not admin candidate

So far, four candidates are vying for the post of ARMM governor.

Besides Mangudadatu, the other aspirants are former Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong, controversial former Mayor Alvarez Isnaji of Indanan town and businessman Ibrahim Nemenio.

Isnaji was previously implicated in the 2008 kidnapping of ABS-CBN television host Ces Drilon and her crew in Sulu.

Mr. Aquino denied suggestions that his administration was fielding Cojuangco as its candidate in the ARMM elections.

“Is (she) a candidate?” Mr. Aquino told reporters during a visit to Bocaue town in Bulacan province. “How can we be working on the postponement and have a candidate at the same time? Wouldn’t that be illogical?”

“The goal is to synchronize all the elections,” the President stressed.

Mr. Aquino believes that synchronizing the ARMM and midterm elections would minimize the impact of the so-called “command votes,” which, he said, “distort the system of getting a mandate from the people.”

The fate of the ARMM polls now lies with the Senate which has yet to submit a committee report on the measure calling for a postponement. There are only two weeks left before Congress adjourns its session.

Muslim princess

Cojuangco’s ties with Muslims go years back. In the 1990s, the Maranao Sultanate League bestowed on her the honorary title of princess or “Bai Alabi.”

She has a house in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, and is a registered voter there.

Cojuangco recently said “old friends and legions of their supporters” wanted her to run. “I’m not really pushing myself into the ARMM political picture, but the people are,” she said.

“I’m not saying that Muslims cannot run it effectively. They can by themselves but they want a non-Muslim tandem for Mangudadatu, a Christian with a heart for Muslim Mindanao,” Cojuangco said.

She vowed to work for peace and development of the ARMM, especially in strengthening autonomy and gaining better access to education, health and socioeconomic opportunities for its nearly three million inhabitants.

Mangudadatu is an uncle of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife and relatives were among those killed in the Maguindanao massacre.

Extended deadline

The Comelec extended the deadline for the filing of the certificates of candidacy until Wednesday midnight to give other candidates more time to travel to election offices in the region.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said some of the candidates, who appealed for an extension, were coming from island provinces such as Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan.

The Comelec also considered the “volatile political situation” in the ARMM in deciding on the extension. With reports from Jocelyn R. Uy and Christine O. Avendaño in Manila