Hataman, Lucman proclaimed winners in ARMM
Administration gubernatorial candidates, including the incumbents, have dominated the elections in the predominantly Muslim region in the southern Philippines.
Led by Liberal Party (LP) incumbent Governor Mujiv Hataman and his running-mate Vice Governor Alrashid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the administration bets remain on their posts after they were proclaimed winners by the Regional Board of Canvassers on Saturday.
Abbas told reporters in Cotabato City that ARMM Regional Board of Canvassers granted Hataman's lawyers’ request to proclaim the winners considering the high margin of votes they got on last May 9's (Monday) elections.
Hataman had three rivals -- Sulu's political kingpin vice governor Sakur Tan, independent candidate Faisal Mangondato, and another independent candidate Kharis Pamaloy while Lucman had three opponents,
independent candidates Binladen Sharief, Haron Bandila, and Mosib Salipada.
"The special elections held in Sulu, Maguindanao and Lanao Del Sur will no longer affect the votes of the winning candidates in regional level," Abbas told reporters in Cotabato city.
Based on partial unofficial results by Commission on Elections (Comelec)--GMA Mirror Server for Regional Governor ARMM, as of 12:36 p.m. Saturday, Hataman already has 725,146 votes against Tan's 298,408 votes, followed by Mangondato with 23,722 votes, and Pamaloy with only 3,894 votes.
Meanwhile, Lucman garnered a total of 593,213 votes compared to his rivals: Sharif - 158,937; Bandila - 110,923; and Salipada with16,300 votes.
The administration's LP provincial gubernatorial candidates Esmael Mangudadatu (Maguindanao), Abdusakur Tan II (Sulu), Bombit Adiong (Lanao del Sur), Jim Salliman-Hataman (Basilan), except Tawi-Tawi, have emerged
victorious over their rivals mostly opposition and independent candidates. The gubernatorial race in Tawi-Tawi was won by an opposition candidate, Rash Matba, over administration bet's incumbent governor Nurbert Sahali.
The ARMM, which is home to at least 2,979,814 Muslims, or 58% of the country's Muslim population, is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, excluding Isabela City in Basilan and Cotabato City in Maguindanao. It has 1,863,230 registered voters, but only about 60 percent of them cast vote during elections due to security and geographical constraints.
The ARMM elections were synchronized with the general elections after President Aquino signed into law Republic Act No. 10153 on June 30, 2011.
In March 2014, the MILF signed a peace deal with the government that brought to a close 17 years of negotiations and ended a decades-old armed conflict in the country’s south.
A proposed autonomy law -- the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) -- that would have sealed the deal, however, was stalled earlier this year as Congress adjourned for campaigning for the May 9 election.
The law would have created a new region to replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and bring much needed wealth to a region that is rich in resources but among the country’s most underdeveloped.
After his proclamation Saturday, Hataman posted a message on his Facebook page, addressed to the Bangsamoro people, calling on them to value reform and good governance to work together to change the way they perceive government, and to further empower government institutions.
Hataman wrote they value transparency and accountability, working together to bring government closer and answerable to the people it serves.
"We value peace and justice, and together we moved towards a future where our children and their children can live without fearing for their lives. Together, we moved forward with much respect for the past and even more hope for the future. Our process of healing continues, as we try to erase the lines that were drawn and have divided us
throughout the elections. We need to unite, once again, because it was together that we achieved much in building a stronger autonomous region.
Now we face greater challenges--to further decrease poverty, increase opportunities for our people, and continue on the path of peace. As we welcome a new set of public servants who will lead our nation, it is important to remember what victory truly means, one that goes beyond the elections. Victory means having a true democracy that works for the people, that allows us to claim our rights as citizens, and one that recognizes what it means for us to be Bangsamoro.
Today, we must remember that a victory is not just cause for celebration; it is a challenge to respond to the needs of the people. Winning the elections is not so much a victory for the candidates who garnered the most number of votes, but should be above all else, a win for the people who believe in the power of collective action and in
the value of a true democracy where the will of the people trumps the ambition of a few.
Today we claim a greater victory, one that will heal through acknowledgment of the past, unite through mutual respect and understanding, and look to a future where no Bangsamoro will be left behind. By the grace and guidance of Allah, may we, in the days to come, continue to claim victory together," Hataman concluded.
Hataman, a former Anak Minandao party-list representative for three terms, was named officer-in-charge of ARMM by President Benigno Aquino III in 2011. He ran in the May 12, 2013 general election and won a landslide victory.
The Hataman clan constitutes a powerful political bloc in Basilan, a Yakan predominantly island province in Mindanao.
Hataman said greater challenges they would face is “to further decrease poverty, increase opportunities for our people, and continue on the path of peace.”
Earlier, the country's one time largest Moro revolutionary organization congratulated President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for his “historic victory” during the May 9 Presidential election and vowed to “partner with you and your administration.”
In a report by Minda News on Sunday, Moro Islamic Liberation Front chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim sent letter to Duterte, saying they remain “highly optimistic and confident that your victory would carry with it our hopes and aspirations for peace and justice in Mindanao.”
Duterte visited the MILF in their Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao noon of February 27. In his rally in Cotabato City that afternoon, Duterte declared that if he wins, “one foot of the Moro is already in Malacanang.
The letter noted that Duterte’s “defense of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) before and during the election campaign has in fact infused these optimism and confidence among our people, which should explain
why they overwhelmingly supported your candidacy.”
Duterte got more votes in the ARMM than the votes for reelectionist ARMM Governor Hataman of the Liberal Party.
Murad said any initiative by Duterte “that would rectify the historical injustices committed on us and institute an enduring peace and development in our territories would be fully supported by the MILF and the Bangsamoro people.”
He said Duterte’s message of justice, freedom, equality and social justice “resonates with our aspiration for genuine change.”
The Philippine government (GPH) and the MILF signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) on October 15, 2012 and subsequently the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 27, 2014.
The agreements stipulate that as a matter of fundamental principle, “the status quo is unacceptable” to both parties.
“Your platform for system change precisely captures this principle,” Murad said adding that it is “in our best interest that your advocacy for federalism entrenches our aspiration for genuine self-rule in our homeland through the implementation of the CAB to put an end to the debilitating conflict that breeds anarchy and stimulates the rise of
extremism.”
“Hopefully, through your efforts this can be realized by both Moros and Filipinos so that we can achieve unity and reconciliation as two nations or as component multi-nations enjoying parity of esteem and internal self-determination, and united together in a federalized association for the betterment of the Philippine State,” Murad said..
Murad assured Duterte that “we will partner with you and your administration.”
The peace process with the MILF is on the implementation phase which includes the passage of the BBL.
Under the FAB and CAB, the passage of the BBL will pave the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro, the new autonomous political entity that would replace the ARMM. The ARMM is deemed abolished once
the BBL is ratified.
Congress under the Aquino administration adjourned on February 3 without passing the law. Without the law, the ARMM continued and elected its new set of officials on May 9.
Under the Duterte administration, it is expected that the BBL is passed by December 2017 as the plebiscite to ratify the BBL requires six months preparation, and the transition period from the ARMM to the Bangsamoro requires at least a year.
If the BBL is passed by then, the transition period can begin by June 30, 2018, election of the first set of officials of the Bangsamoro can be held in May 2019 and the inauguration of the Bangsamoro can be held on June 30, 2019.
If no BBL is passed, the ARMM election in May 2019 will proceed as scheduled.
Duterte told MILF that he would convene a Constitutional Commission to amend the 1987 Constitution to change the system of government into federalism but “if it takes time, and if only to defuse tension, in my government I will convince Congress to pass the BBL then make it as a template for federal states.”
Peter Laviña, Duterte’s spokesperson early this week said the incoming President would propose to Congress the calling of a Constitutional Convention to amend the 1987 Constitution to pave the way for the shift to federalism.
At the Cotabato City plaza in the afternoon of February 27, Duterte stressed the need to correct the historical injustices committed against the Moro people and vowed that under his administration, “we will try to go federalism. The Bangsamoro on the map now, let’s not touch that anymore. Let’s make it an example for the rest to copy. I will immediately ask Congress to pass the BBL)."
He said he will also tell Nur Misuari“kopyahin na lang natin sila para sa Mindanao at buong Pilipinas”(let’s copy that in Mindanao and in the rest of the Philippines”).
Misuari, whom Duterte considers a friend, is founding chair of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) with whom government signed a Final Peace Agreement in 1996 and whose implementation has yet to be fully completed.
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