19 of 37 Cotabato City candidates for barangay chairman uncontested

COTABATO CITY --- Nineteen of the 37 barangays here have unopposed candidates for barangay captains, something first in the contemporary history of this now five-decade city.Most of Cotabato City’s 37 barangays were once locked in intense rivalry among big families squabbling for leadership in their barangays, whose registered voters then were as fragmented, divided by alliances premised on kinship, or for fear of protagonist clans.Chief Inspector Aldrin Gonzalez, information officer of the Police Regional Office-12, said Sunday their director, Chief Superintendent Marcelo Morales, was elated with the unopposed candidacy of 19 aspirants for the top elective post in their respective barangays.Cotabato City is under the jurisdiction of PRO-12, but is located in Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Cotabato City is also the administrative and political capital of ARMM. There may be so many reasons on how that unopposed candidacies happened. The PRO-12 leadership considers that a sign of unity among barangay folks, something brought in by cohesion among stakeholders, perhaps a consequence of oneness among them in terms of barangay governance, Gonzalez said.The country will hold on May 14 the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.Gonzalez said their regional director is certain the feat will improve more the economy in the city, now a major investment hub in central Mindanao.Big shopping malls, mostly operating with national franchises, have sprouted in Cotabato City in the last four years, apparently brought in by the improving security in the area.Gonzalez said PRO-12 is also grateful to the office of Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi for helping facilitate the collection last week of 44 assorted unlicensed firearms from her constituents in the city.The mayor turned over last week the cache, comprised of assault rifles and other high-powered guns, to officials of the city police and the 5thSpecial Forces Battalion, which is helping secure the 37 barangays here from criminal gangs and violent religious extremists.Members of local business blocs said the fragile peace now in the city complements their effort to convince foreign capitalists to put up viable business ventures along with local counterparts.Sandra Siang, president of the Kutawato Muslim Business Chamber, said Sunday one proof that foreign investors now have confidence on the city’s investment climate are the recent trade missions here of Chinese business executives who promised to venture into projects that can generate employment and earn revenues for the city government.The latest to have come to the city were Chinese benefactors who launched on Saturday along with local officials the construction of the China-Cotabato Friendship Technical School.The setting up of the technical school in Barangay Tamontaka here is a joint project of a group of capitalists in China and Guiani-Sayadi, first elected vice mayor in 2016 and assumed the city’s mayoral post months later after her older brother, then Mayor Japal Guiani,Jr., died of an illness. These foreign benefactors would not come around if they feel it is not safe for them to come around and put up socio-economic projects and businesses, Siang said.