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COVENANT --- Candidates for local positions in
Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, took oath last March 22 for a peaceful polling in connection with the
May 2019 elections. (Photo by 6th ID)
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The
candidates -- from mayoral down to municipal council hopefuls -- trooped to the
municipal covered court to express their willingness to participate in the
peace covenant signing event.
Datu
Saudi Ampatuan, a town known for its Pink Mosque, has gained notoriety over the
years for election-related fraud and violence.
The
initiative was facilitated by the Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade (MIB),
the 57th Infantry Battalion, the Commission on Elections, and the local
Interior and Local Government Office.
“We
were elated at the commitment shown by six mayoralty candidates, thre e vice mayoral aspirants, and 36 town
councilor hopefuls ‘rubbing elbows’ with one another during the covenant
signing,” Maj. Jocelyn Mangadlao, 1st MIB executive officer, said in a
statement.
Mangadlao
said candidates showed their commitment in the presence of town Election
Officer Rohaida Khalid, Local Government Operations Officer Bai Anisa
Abdulkarim, Maj. Mangadlao, 57th IB Executive Officer Maj. Mark Anthony
Tornalejo, and Major Abdulbassit Kulod, chief of the Datu Saudi Ampatuan Police
Station.
Also
present were members of a local poll watchdog and other concerned citizens.
Mangadlao
said the activity was conducted to encourage the local candidates to commit
themselves to a peaceful and credible election and to invoke the intervention
of the Almighty for an honest, orderly, and peaceful election 2019.
Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the Army’s 6th
Infantry Division commander, lauded the initiatives of the 1st MIB and 57th IB
to ensure peaceful balloting in its area of assignment. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA - Cotabato)
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