COTABATO CITY — Chinese traders were elated with the election of a governor in the fledgling Maguindanao del Norte province who can speak their language and a vice governor who is a businessman.
Tucao Ong Mastura, who is of mixed Moro and Chinese descent, and Marshall Ibrahim Sinsuat were proclaimed as first ever elected governor and vice governor of the barely two-year-old Maguindanao del Norte, respectively, at the venue of the canvassing of election returns at the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in the province on Wednesday afternoon, May 14.
Mastura and Sinsuat, who is a scion of a noble Maguindanaon clan, aspired for the two elective posts as official candidates of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose officials are together managing the now five-year Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the creation of which is a concession to their erstwhile revolutionary organization as part of the government-MILF peace compact.
Members of the Chinese communities in Cotabato City, the seat of the BARMM government, and in nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte, some of them with trading partners abroad, told reporters on Thursday, May 15, that they are certain that Mastura and Sinsuat, whose families are engaged in businesses, will both focus on programs needed to boost the investment potentials of the province.
The old Maguindanao province, established in 1974 via a special decree by then President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Sr., got divided into Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte after the May 2022 elections via an enabling measure drafted and approved by members of the 80-seat BARMM parliament.
A number of Chinese merchants in Cotabato City, the regional capital of BARMM, had stated on Facebook their optimism on improvements soon in the business climate of Maguindanao del Norte with a governor who is close to them and a vice governor whose clan has large-scale fishing ventures in their hometown, Datu Blah Sinsuat, in the western coast of the province. Mohammad Omar Pasigan, chairman of the Bangsamoro Regional Board of Investments, which is under the office of BARMM Chief Minister Abdulrauf Abdul Macacua, had told reporters that Chinese businessmen and their spouses had campaigned for Mastura and Sinsuat owing to their being attached, in many ways, with the business sectors in Central Mindanao.
“We are happy that they supported these candidates of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front during the elections,” Pasigan, whose office is the Bangsamoro government’s main conduit to local and foreign investors, said.
Mastura and Sinsuat were quoted in radio reports on Thursday morning as saying that they appreciate the neutrality of the Army’s 6th ID and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region during the May 12 elections in Maguindanao del Norte and in other areas in the autonomous region.
“It was also good that the canvassing of election returns from Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur was done by officials and personnel of the Commission on Elections at the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division.
The proceedings were orderly and peaceful, done on a neutral ground,” Sinsuat said. (JF UNSON, MAY 15, 2025)
