COTABATO CITY — Thousands of voters lined up along major thoroughfares in Cotabato City on Thursday morning, while their favored aspirants for local elective posts filed certificates of candidacy (CoC) under the banner of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo (SIAP) in the Bangsamoro region.
Radio stations here and in nearby Central Mindanao cities reported at noontime Thursday that no fewer than 20,000 Muslim, Christian and non-Moro ethnic Teduray residents from across the 37 barangays in Cotabato City appeared on the streets to show support for Vice-Mayor Johari C. Abu, a full-blooded Moro, who is aspiring for the city’s mayoral post in next year’s local electoral exercise.
Mr. Abu and his running mate, Bimbo A. Pasawiran, are the anointed candidates for Cotabato City mayor and vice mayor, respectively, of the SIAP Party.
SIAP Party, existing since the time of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is touted as the largest and most organized regional political party in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. It is reported the party has around 700,000 documented supporters in the region’s five provinces and three cities. — John Felix M. Unson
