Maguindanao town vice mayor resigns over health reasons
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 19:45 PM Mon Sep 14, 2020
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By:
Noel Y, Punzalan
SWORN IN. Mayor Marop Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, swears into office incoming Vice Mayor Datu Amier Akmad Aguak (right) during a ceremony held at the municipal town hall on Monday. Outgoing Vice Mayor Datu Akmad Ampatuan (inset)
COTABATO CITY – Vice Mayor Datu Akmad B. Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao resigned from his position on Monday due to health issues.
The 58-year-old official was replaced by Datu Amier Akmad Aguak, the municipality’s top councilor.
“It is with mixed emotions that I accept the resignation of Datu Akmad,” Mayor Marop Ampatuan, son of the resigned vice mayor, said in a phone interview.
Anwar Kuit Emblawa, the secretary to the mayor, said a formal turnover of the vice-mayoral position took place on the same day at the town hall.
The elder Ampatuan escaped an ambush attempt on his life on Dec. 24, 2019. He was hit in the left leg during the incident while two aides who were with him in the vehicle were fatally hit by bullets from the ambushers.
“Aside from his leg injury he sustained in that incident, other ailments had slowed down Datu Akmad the past several months,” Emblawa said in a separate phone interview.
The vice mayor testified against his relatives involved in the infamous 2009 Maguindanao massacre incident.
The ambush against him occurred five days after a Quezon City court convicted the masterminds in the massacre on Dec. 19, 2019.