By Violeta M. Gloria/MindaNews
ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/13 May) — It’s all Dimaporos — mother, son and daughter — who took the highest elective posts in Lanao del Norte.
Reelected governor is Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo. Representative of the first district is his mother, Imelda Q. Dimaporo, who once served as governor. Representative of the second district is Khalid’s sister Fatima Aliah.
Khalid was proclaimed winner by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday, while Aliah was declared winner around 6:45 p.m. today. Imelda was declared much earlier.
Comelec bared that Khalid, who won his second term, gathered 179,402 votes; the far second is Alijandro Batalo with 17,755 votes.
Fatima Aliah will succeed her father Abdullah, now on his third and last term, as representative of the second district.
Imelda ran and lost against Vicente “Varf” Belmonte in the 2007 elections when Iligan City was still part of the first district of Lanao del Norte, but starting this year, Iligan is now a separate district.
Khalid’s party mate, Irma Umpa-Ali, was also proclaimed as vice governor with 140,861 votes.
Also proclaimed winners are Benny Baguio, Tominaman Sumalipao, Acmad Cotongan, Macabangkit Tawan-tawan and Tawantawan Cauntongan as provincial board members.
The Dimaporos are also behind the party-list Action Dynamic for Development (ADD) that garnered a relatively high number of votes in the province but still needs to contend with other party-list groups in the national count.
Irma Jean Rosales, assistant to the provincial election officer, said that unlike in previous polls here, there have been no complaints so far relating to results of last Monday’s elections.
Khalid, who professed to sustain his endeavor toward the achievement of some goals under his “Vision 2020,” prided his contribution to the continuing peace dialogues in the communities, provision of PhilHealth cards to indigents, and promotion of tourism thru sports and the arts.
In his first term, the governor supported cultural festivals and motocross and biking competitions. His other interests include diving and underwater photography, and practical shooting using high-powered guns and rifles.
Khalid’s support for Gibo Teodoro, who conceded defeat in the presidential race, was based on the former defense secretary’s move to quell Moro rebels’ attack in the coastal areas of Lanao del Norte.
Meanwhile, Fatima Aliah and the board members of the second district were proclaimed despite the delay of transmission of results of Nunungan town to the provincial board.
Col. Cresente Ferrer, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade based in Iligan City, attributed the delay to malfunctioning compact flash cards but said these have already been attended to.
“This means that 95.65 percent of the election returns have been canvassed,” Ferrer said. (Violeta M. Gloria / MindaNews)
