Elected Marawi mayor vows to stop drugs, crimes

MARAWI CITY — The newly elected mayor of the city vowed to fight proliferation of drugs, which had pushed the city’s professionals to form a movement called Save-Marawi.City elections officer Michael Ignes proclaimed as winner of the mayoralty race, lawyer Majul Usman Gandamra, a former assemblyman representing Lanao del Sur to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Regional Assembly.Running under the pro-administration Liberal Party, Gandamra was proclaimed with 21,684 votes over rival, former Marawi City Mayor Omar Ali Solitario of PDP-Laban, who got 21,414 votes. Marawi City has 49,114 registered voters and this time 44,780 voted for a high turnout of 91.17 percent.It can be recalled that four men were arrested in mid-August last year, after a 14-year old girl in Marawi City was reportedly raped and killed, while her parents were out of their house to participate in a congregational Friday prayer in Barangay Basak Malutlut, in that city.The incident worries Maranao Muslim professionals, many of them concerned about what has become of the Marawi’s distinct cultural tourism label as Islamic City” — or of the peaceful coexistence in the vast campus of the Mindanao State University, said lawyer Rasol Mitmug Jr., and Prof. Khal Mambuay, both now young government executives of the ARMM.A press statement from his camp, said Gandamra vowed to stop all forms of criminality in Marawi City such as selling of illegal drugs and shall work for its progress and economic development. He promised to deliver all the basic services to his constituents and ensure peace and order in the city. He added that he shall develop a comprehensive waste management program and address the traffic problem faced everyday by the commuters.”Nash B. Maulana