Arroyo leads Poe by 134,046 votes in Maguindanao

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao — President Arroyo defeated closest rival Fernando Poe Jr. by 134,046 votes in the final tally of election results from all towns in this province.

This bolsters hopes by local officials that she will again accommodate a qualified Maguindanaon in her new Cabinet if she is proclaimed winner in the May 10 presidential race.

President Arroyo garnered a total of 193,938 votes from Maguindanao’s 27 towns while Poe got only 59,892 votes.

Mrs. Arroyo’s running mate, Sen. Noli de Castro, got 168,502 votes, leaving far behind his closest rival, Sen. Loren Legarda, who garnered 100,751 votes.

President Arroyo’s former justice secretary, Simeon Datumanong, was proclaimed winner in the second district congressional race by the Maguindanao board of canvassers last Friday.

Re-elected Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, provincial chairman of the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats), said he and his constituent-mayors are convinced that Mrs. Arroyo, if proclaimed winner, will appoint a Maguindanaon to a Cabinet position to reciprocate the support for her of at least 90 percent of local religious and political leaders.

Ampatuan and his running mate, re-electionist Vice Gov. Bimbo Sinsuat, were proclaimed winners by provincial election supervisor Wynne Asdala last Friday.

Ampatuan and Sinsuat both garnered more than 200,000 votes each, with their rivals, outgoing Maguindanao Rep. Guimid Matalam and Ma’aroup Candao, respectively, scoring only more than 60,000 votes each.

Reports obtained from the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao showed that it was only in Maguindanao, a component province of the ARMM, where members of the administration’s Lakas-CMD "efficiently delivered votes" for Mrs. Arroyo.

Twenty-six of Lakas-CMD’s 27 mayoral candidates in the province, 23 of them re-electionists, have also been proclaimed winners by their respective municipal boards of canvassers.

In a message aired over Catholic radio station dxMS in Cotabato City yesterday, Ampatuan appealed to his constituent-leaders from different parties to start reconciling with each other to ensure the continuation of the government’s peace and development programs in their respective municipalities.