COTABATO CITY, 4 December — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s candidates for new leaders of then Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao were declared yesterday as winners of the region’s Nov. 26 election.
According to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Parouk Hussin is the new governor of the region, which includes the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi and plus the city of Marawi.
Hussin’s running mate, Mahid Mutilan, is the new vice governor.
Hussin belongs to the Council of 15, a group of senior MNLF leaders who topped Nur Misuari as chairman of the Front last May.
Misuari, who has refused to accept his ouster, opposed the holding of elections, which would have proved who between himself and his rivals the Muslim population in Mindanao preferred as to govern.
Last month, a bitter Misuari led an uprising in Jolo and was subsequently arrested in the Malaysian state of Sabah while fleeing in hopes of seeking asylum abroad, abandoning the people he allegedly led into a debacle.
President Arroyo has expressed hope that the tandem of Hussin and Mutilan would spur economic progress and bring about peace in the Musli region, considered the poorest in the country.
Misuari had been accused by his critics of failing miserably to make any improvement in the region, despite the massive funds poured by the government during his five-year stint as governor.
Lawmakers have said Misuari has yet to account for 4.8 billion pesos that the government funneled to the region for the economic development. His own constituents in the ARMM have complained that he was always away, preferring to stay in expensive hotels abroad or in Manila.
Big challenge ahead
Yesterday, the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said Hussin and Mutilan, indeed, face big challenges ahead.
How the new set of leaders in the ARMM are going to respond to the complex problem of Mindanao is worth watching, the group said.
While saying it does not participate as a group in the country’s elections on the principle that it does not recognize the government, the MILF had allowed its members as individuals to support their candidates in such electoral exercises.
Word has it that the MILF would have preferred Ebrahim “Toto” Paglas III as the next ARMM governor, instead of Parouk Hussin.
Paglas, a scion of a prominent Maguindanao family that included the late Sen. Salipada Pendatun, had been described news reports as an industrialist who was also very supportive of President Arroyo.
“She’s an economist and I am a businessman. We have a lot of things in common,” Paglas had been quoted as saying as he appealed on President Arroyo “to let the people choose who is the best for them.”
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Paglas — also a nephew to MILF Chair Hashim Salamat — gained fame when he successfully converted his town, Datu Paglas, from a notorious bed of lawlessness to a vast agricultural production area.
“When he was mayor, he started to talk with international donors and businessmen and initiated a banana plantation that now employs residents of Datu Paglas,” said the paper. Paglas is the first Muslim to win the Ten Outstanding Young Men award, which is given every year in the country.
