Cotabato City

No known plan yet for incoming Cotabato mayor’s assumption to office

Rommel Rebollido

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No known plan yet for incoming Cotabato mayor’s assumption to office

SILENT. Cotabato City Mayor Mohammad Ali "Bruce" Matabalao with his supporters during the campaign period.

Bruce 'BM' Matabalao FB page

Cotabato City mayor-elect Bruce Matabalao chooses to go to an undisclosed place to 'safely plan' the things he would do as soon as he assumes office, says a city councilor

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – Cotabato City mayor-elect Bruce Matabalao has gone to an undisclosed place but will assume as the city’s leader on Thursday, June 30, a city councilor assured.

Cotabato Councilor Florante Formento on Wednesday, June 29, gave the assurance due to speculations about the whereabouts of Matabalao who has stayed away from the public for several days.

There are no preparations for any city hall activity, and his days of silence resulted in speculations about whether or not he planned to assume as Cotabato’s mayor on Thursday.

Matabalao, the standard-bearer in Cotabato of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), won the tense-filled mayoral race with 29,818 votes, unseating reelectionist Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi who garnered 22,939 votes.

Matabalao’s running mate Butch Abu and seven councilors, including Formento, also won.

Sayadi’s group has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to nullify the election results in 36 clustered precincts and order a recount in 17 clustered precincts in the city. 

They also sought an order by Comelec to retrieve and seal the ballot boxes from these precincts.

Many of Matabalao’s supporters have no inkling about the incoming mayor’s plans for his anticipated assumption to duty on Thursday.

“No one knows where he is. He might be afraid of protests,” said a city hall worker, citing a petition that questioned the results of the May 9 elections in Cotabato City.

Formento said there was no truth to the speculations, adding that Matabalao merely chose to go to an undisclosed place where he could “safely plan” the things he would do as soon as he assumed office as Cotabato’s mayor.

“There are many people, seeking personal favors, looking for him. He does not want to make commitments for now,” Formento said.

But he said he was unaware, too, about Matabalao’s plans for Thursday. 

Formento, however, said Matabalao has confirmed that he would grace the July 5 inaugural session of the city council and that he would address the city that day.

On Tuesday night, Matabalao went public after days of silence and took to social media to lash back at those criticizing him.

“I opted to remain silent and have not been reacting to all your threats and deceitful posts that aim to mislead our people but do not ever think that I am sleeping and will just let everything go. Your nonsense has got to stop!” Matabalao posted on his Facebook account.

But the mayor-elect mentioned nothing about what his plans are for his anticipated June 30 assumption to office.

Talk has it that his political opponents were organizing mass protests to prevent Matabalao and other new officials from assuming their posts on Thursday. – Rappler.com

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