Sulu governor, vice gov, mayors join Lakas CMD party

COTABATO CITY —The governor of Sulu, mayors and members of their provincial board joined the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats on Thursday via a symbolic rite officiated by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., who is a member of the national executive council of Lakas CMD, told reporters on Friday that the event, where officials from across Sulu’s 19 towns led by Gov. Hadji Abdusakur Tan Sr. took oath as party members at the Sulu Area Coordinating Center in Barangay Bangkal in Patikul, presided over by Romualdez.

Romualdez, who is national president of the Lakas CMD, was accompanied to Sulu by Rep. Mannix Dalipe (Zamboanga City, 2nd District), Rep. Toby Tiangco (Navotas) and Rep. Jose Aquino II (Agusan 1st District).

Adiong, also a senior official of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo or SIAP regional party, said that besides Tan, Sulu Vice Gov. Abdusakur Tan II, who is presiding chairperson of their Sangguniang Panlalawigan and other members of the provincial law-making bloc, also pledged allegiance to the Lakas CMD during the event that Romualdez officiated.

“The influential political leaders of Sulu are now together in this party, our party,” Adiong, Lakas CMD national vice president, said.

Tan, who, as Sulu governor, is president of Sallam Party in the province, is the candidate of the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition, or BGC, for chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during next year’s first ever BARMM parliamentary elections.

The BGC is jointly led by Adiong, Tan, Rep. Mujiv Hataman (Basilan), Maguindanao del Sur Gov. Mariam Mangudadatu and her spouse, Suharto Mangudadatu, who had served as governor of Sultan Kudarat in Region 12 and has just resigned as executive director of the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority owing to his planned candidacy for a local elective post during next year’s electoral exercise.

Adiong said their SIAP regional party, whose president is Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mohammad Khalid Adiong, supports the BGC’s anointment of Tan as its bet for BARMM chief minister in the 2025 regional polls.

The SIAP party now has more than 300,000 members and supporters across BARMM’s Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces and in the region’s three cities, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, which is the seat of the regional government.