Absence of governor worries Shariff Kabunsuan folk

COTABATO CITY – Peace advocates and non-government organizations involved in humanitarian projects in Central Mindanao are now worried about the adverse effects of the continuing absence of a duly proclaimed governor in the fledgling Shariff Kabunsuan province.

The Commission on Elections has not resolved until now the electoral controversies in the May 14 gubernatorial race in the newly created province, which covers all of the 11 towns of the first district of Maguindanao.

The two candidates for governor of the province – Datu Bimbo Sinsuat and Datu Tucao Mastura, who both belong to Central Mindanao’s Moro royalty – have contested the results of the gubernatorial elections in each other’s bailiwicks.

The newly established provincial government is being managed in the meantime by officer-in-charge Bai Noraya Sinsuat-Pasandalan.

Sinsuat and Mastura both said the special provincial board of canvassers, chaired by lawyer Josslyn de Mesa, cannot proclaim the winning gubernatorial candidate unless the controversies in the election for provincial governor is resolved.