Filing of COCs in Seaside Town Most Peaceful in Maguindanao del Norte
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The peaceful seaside Datu Blah Sinsuat town is also known for its scenic beaches where residents of nearby Cotabato City flock during non-working days. (Photo: John Felix Unson)
COTABATO CITY – The filing of COCs or Certificates of Candidacy for the different barangay posts in a seaside town was the most peaceful in Maguindanao del Norte.
In separate statements on Saturday, two regional security officials, Police Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza and Army Major Gen. Alex Rillera, acknowledged the role of Datu Blah Sinsuat Municipal Peace and Order Council in ensuring a peaceful filing of COC by aspirants for elective positions in the 13 barangays of the municipality.
Datu Blah Sinsuat, a virtually still fledgling 13-year-old seaside town, has demonstrated its capacity to conduct an orderly and peaceful filing of COCs compared to the other 11 towns in the province.
Trouble, triggered by tension among rival Moro clans of rival candidates, marred the filing of COCs in a number of towns in Maguindanao del Norte and the five other provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR), credited the peaceful filing of COCs in Datu Blah Sinsuat partly goes to the local Moro, ethnic Teduray, and Christian leaders who helped the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“It is the community that can work that out, as always,” Nobleza said, referring to the residents of Datu Blah Sinsuat, also known as the fishing capital of Maguindanao del Norte.
Rillera, commander of the 6th Infantry Division and its anti-terror Joint Task Force Central, said he is certain that Datu Blah Sinsuat will soon rise as the new investment hub in Maguindanao del Norte.
Mayor Marshall Sinsuat said even local members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) voluntarily helped secure the Comelec’s COC registration process in their municipality.