Maguindanao town has 2 proclaimed mayors!

COTABATO CITY — Two mortal enemies, both declared mayor-elect of Kabuntalan, Maguindanao, yesterday assumed office and warned each other of serious repercussions if one would not give in to the other.

Worse, lawyer Clarita Callar, Comelec’s regional director in Central Mindanao, could not give any explanation on the frenzy, except to insinuate that it is up to their central office in Manila to resolve the issue.

The two contenders to Kabuntulan’s highest elective post, re-electionist Mayor Salipongan Dagloc and Bai Susan Samad, both claimed to have separate genuine certificates of proclamation from the municipal board of canvassers declaring each of them as winner in the area’s May 14 mayoralty race.

Sharia lawyer Datu Kulot Dagloc, speaking on Dagloc’s behalf, said it was his relative who should assume the position of mayor since the authenticity of his proclamation was beyond question.

"In fact one of the key signatories to the proclamation of Bai Susan Samad has signed a sworn statement purporting that it was not his signature that appeared on the document proclaiming her as mayor-elect," he said.

But Samad, widow of former Kabuntalan mayor Sukarno Samad, said it is only the Comelec en banc which has the final say on the issue.

Samad, who spoke yesterday over Catholic station dxMS, the leading broadcast outfit here, insisted that her certificate of proclamation was not spurious.

Not a member of Kabuntalan’s board of canvassers could be reached for comment as all of them have reportedly been in hiding since the separate proclamations of Samad and Dagloc.

Followers of both sides, mostly armed with military-type rifles, showed up around Kabuntalan’s town hall yesterday but agreed to disperse only after religious leaders intervened.

Kabuntalan, some 30 kilometers southeast of this city, is a known sanctuary of kidnap-for-ransom gangs, including those led by slain kidnappers Commander Mubarak and Musa Ali. — John Unson