Leaders active in peace process eye congressional posts

COTABATO CITY -- Three prominent regional figures vocal in supporting the peace process between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are aspiring for the congressional seats in their provinces.The outgoing three-termer Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and his staunch political ally, Mujiv Hataman, regional chief executive of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, simultaneously filed on Tuesday morning their certificates of candidacy for congressional representatives in the second district of Maguindanao and in Basilan, respectively. I can help articulate the Moro cause in Congress if I get elected, said Hataman, whose office has socio-economic projects in ARMM provinces in support of the normalization agenda of the MILF and the national government.Hataman’s deputy, ARMM Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman, also filed his COC for the congressional post in the second district of Lanao del Sur the day before.Mangudadatu, a full-blooded Maguindanaon,Hataman, who is of Yakan descent, and Lucman, a scion of a big Meranao clan, are staunch supporters of Malacañang’s effort to put a negotiated closure to the Moro secessionist issue hounding the south since the early 1970s.Hataman and Lucman were running mates during the 2013 ARMM polls and, subsequently, got reelected in 2016.Mangudadatu said he will focus on legislative thrusts that can hasten peaceful means of resolving the security issues hounding the south for five decades now if he gets elected as congressional representative.A common political protégé of Hataman and Mangudadatu, the incumbent speaker of ARMM’s 24-seat Regional Assembly, Ronnie Sinsuat, now in his third term as regional lawmaker, also filed on Tuesday his COC for the congressional seat in the first district of Maguindanao.Mangudadatu and Sinsuat both belong to the administration's ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan Party.Hataman and Mangudadatu are both supporting the candidacy of Sinsuat, who hails from Datu Odin Sinsuat town that has more than 50,000 registered voters.A senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front, Muslimin Sema, former mayor of Cotabato City, also filed his candidacy for congressman in the first district of Maguindanao.The district also covers all 37 barangays in Cotabato City.Mangudadatu and Sinsuat were accompanied on Tuesday to the provincial office of the Commission on Elections inside the 32-hectare ARMM compound in Cotabato City by more than 20 of Maguindanao’s 36 towns, among them Shameem Mastura of the vote-rich Sultan Mastura town.The same bloc of local executives also escorted their favored bets for governor and vice governor of Maguindanao when they filed their COCs for the two provincial elective posts on Tuesday.The mayors are supporting the bid for a third term of incumbent Vice Gov. Lester Sinsuat and the candidacy for Maguindanao governor of running mate Mayor Freddie Mangudadatu of Mangudadatu town.Mayor Freddie, president of the league of mayors in Maguindanao, is younger sibling of the now outgoing, three-termer governor of the province.The reelectionist Maguindanao vice governor and Mayor Freddie are also both PDP-Laban members.