2 women 'one-on-one' in North Cotabato gubernatorial race

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — Two women are aspiring for the gubernatorial seat of North Cotabato, something first ever in the political history of central Mindanao.

Vice Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza, governor of the province for three consecutive terms, or nine years, prior to her election as vice governor in 2019, filed her certificate of candidacy for governor Wednesday.

Mendoza, who belongs to the Nacionalista Party, shall challenge the reelection bid of first-termer Gov. Nancy Catamco, a PDP-Laban member.

Mendoza’s running-mate, provincial board member Shirlyn Macasarte Villanueva, also filed Wednesday her COC for vice governor.

Villanueva, Lakas-CMD member, is pitted against Catamco’s subordinate-provincial administrator, Efren Piñol.

Catamco and Piñol together filed on Friday their COCs for governor and vice-governor respectively.

Representatives from the Moro community,  among them provincial board member Kelly Antao, escorted Mendoza and Villanueva when they filed their COCs at the provincial office of the Commission on Elections in Barangay Amas here.

Mendoza is a staunch supporter of Malacañang’s peace process with southern Moro communities.

Mendoza even campaigned for the ratification, via a plebiscite in 2019, of the Republic Act 11054, the charter of the now 29-month Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Catamco was North Cotabato’s congressional representative before she got to the helm of the provincial government in 2019.

The BARMM has 63 constituent-barangays in different North Cotabato municipalities. The BARMM regional leadership has not announced yet whom to support among the two aspirants for North Cotabato’s gubernatorial post.

BARMM’s chief minister, Ahod Ebrahim, is president and co-founder of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, or UBJP, of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Ebrahim endorsed last week the reelection bids of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. and Vice Gov.Mohammad Khalid Adiong.

Ebrahim is the chairman of the central committee of the MILF that has thousands of members in Lanao del Sur.

Adiong, who, as governor, is chairperson of the Lanao del Sur provincial peace and order council, said the alliance between their party, the Sambatan ko Ingud Ago So Pagtao, and the UBJP will complement BARMM’s peace and development initiatives in Lanao del Sur.

Lanao del Sur has 39 towns and more than 90 barangays in its capital, Marawi City.

Ebrahim and Adiong separately told reporters last week, during a gathering in the MILF’s Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao, that they shall support Malacañang’s favored candidates for president and vice president.

Adiong has six rivals in the May 2022 Lanao del Sur gubernatorial race.

The six contenders --- Mansawi Mimbalawag, Gapor Usman, Ameroddin Sarangani Camar Banocag, Jr., Haber Dida-agun and Alim Ibrahim --- filed their COCs one after another this week at the Lanao del Sur Comelec provincial office in Marawi City.

In Basilan, also a component-province of BARMM, the second-termer Gov. Jim Salliman is to face a rival, Alfiyah Akbar, in next year’s elections.

Salliman, a peace advocate who helped workout the surrender of 312 members of the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan in the past five years, defeated Akbar during the 2019 gubernatorial elections in the island province.

Saliman is also instrumental in the construction of the now almost complete Basilan Transcentral Road traversing the Sampinit Complex in the center of Basilan.

The forested highlands in the Sampinit Complex that were once impregnable bastions of the Abu Sayyaf are now touted as “peace zones” where villagers can propagate crops without fear of attacks by the terror group.