ARMM local execs to join LP — sultan

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Local leaders in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) may transfer to the Liberal Party (LP) under President-elect Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III, a Maranao sultan said on Tuesday. “There are feelers coming from everywhere indicating that mayors, vice mayors, councilors and even the datus and sultans in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao want to join the LP, which they think can help foster political reforms in their communities," said Tanny Unda, a Maranao sultan in Lanao del Sur and a member of one of the 11 royal houses in the province. The ARMM is composed of Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, Basilan, confirmed that he was planning to leave the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino for LP. Furigay said this was because he admires the leadership of LP Maguindanao provincial chapter head Hadji Tucao Mastura, who supposedly united the factions in the province after the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town that left 57 people dead. Mastura is the incoming mayor of Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao. "I was so impressed with how many mayors in Maguindanao, under the provincial chapter of LP led by Hadji Tucao Mastura, succeeded in banding themselves together during the campaign period, in such a short time, after the political storm that fragmented them after the November 23 massacre incident in the province," Furigay said. Meanwhile, six Aksyon Demokratiko party mayors in Maguindanao’s first district led by incoming Barira Mayor Rocaya Tomawis and Parang Mayor Ibrahim Ibay grouped themselves and declared they want to be identified as an “independent Iranon political team" that has nothing to do with the Ampatuan clan, the powerful political family implicated in the massacre. Tomawis said they are willing to join LP once Aquino formally assumes office on June 30. The term Iranon refers to the Muslim community in the hinterland borders of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. Furigay said Lamitan City local officials would offer communal interfaith prayers during the Lami-lamihan Festival two weeks from now for the smooth entry of the Aquino administration and for the House Speakership bid of Quezon City Rep-elect Feliciano “Sonny" Belmonte. Ampatuan clan patriarch Andal Sr. and his sons Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Jr. and former ARMM governor Zaldy and several other members of the powerful political family are detained in Taguig City in Manila in connection with the November 23 carnage. Various members of the Ampatuan clan who were elected last May 10 said they want themselves labeled as “neutral Ampatuans" to detach themselves from those linked to the massacre. - Malu Cadelina Manar/SD/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV