Carrying the theme “Tapat na tapatan para sa marangal na boto tungo sa pagbabago,” the organizer said the forum was meant to give voters and members of the public a venue to gauge the platforms espoused by each of the ARMM gubernatorial aspirants.
However, only Hataman and Aishah Prudencio braved the challenge with the former getting much of the audience’s approval with clear-cut answers to the issues thrown at both. Hataman was with running-mate Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman.
Organizers said Mangudadatu backed out of the event to make a quick trip to Tawi-Tawi, one of the provinces comprising the ARMM along with Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Basilan.
Among the issues brought up was the latest data released by the National Statistics Coordination Board that ranks ARMM as the poorest region in the country.
Hataman said the survey only included the first half of 2012 when his caretaker administration was just starting out on reforming the beleaguered regional bureaucracy.
He said that according to pundits it would take at least three years before any programs of reform can be essentially reflected in surveys.
Hataman, who has been strongly endorsed by President Benigno Aquino III and the five incumbent provincial governors in the ARMM – Sakur Tan of Sulu; Jum Akbar of Basilan, Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao; Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-Tawi; and Mamintal Adiong of Lanao del Sur – said he is banking on the gains of his administration’s 15 months in office to secure the mandate of the region’s voting populace.
The acting ARMM governor managed to attain unprecedented feats that include the generation of savings out of its regular allocations from the national coffers and the purging of ghost projects and employees.
Organizers and spectators were equally disappointed over Mangudadatu’s last minute withdrawal, which seemed to have deprived them and especially the voters the chance to hear the platform of the three-term Sultan Kudarat governor.
“It was the right venue for the candidates to present their platform as well as their take on pressing issues in the region,” said Bai Samra Galib, 46, a local entrepreneur and community organizer from the town of Talayan in Maguindanao.
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