Cotabato Governor Criticized By Politicians Over Remarks

Mayor Muslimin Sema of Cotabato City. (Zamboanga Journal)

COTABATO CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 16 Jun) Governor Emmanuel Piñol of North Cotabato was criticized Friday by politicians in Cotabato City over his alleged “bad-mouthing” of the city during the National Exporters Congress Localization Forum June 15-16 in General Santos City.

Piñol was said to have derided the status of Cotabato City after it was listed among the 20 poorest areas in the Philippines based on the 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB).

In a radio interview, Mayor Muslimin Sema of Cotabato City expressed dismay over the “unreasonable tendency of others to put in bad light other LGUs”. "Instead of assisting the perceived “slow-growing areas”, other political leaders would pull them down further into the drain," Sema said.

Sema also questioned the results of the survey. He doubted the methodology and the conclusions of the survey.

“The results are unrealistic,” he said, adding, even the the local NSCB has not come out with the official results of the surveys.

With 14 banks in a very small place, Sema said he cannot believe that people here are very poor as to land in the poverty list. Citing statistics from financial institutions, Sema pronounced that around P100 million is circulating daily on the loca economy while the underground.

In the survey, annual per capita poverty threshold for Cotabato City was P13,805 and the highest in Region XII. “It means we are the most expensive city in Central Mindanao and that our poor here would be rich when they are in North Cotabato whose poverty threshold is just P10,972,” Sema said.

Local politicians also sided with Sema and assailed Piñol for his statement. Piñol could not be immediately contacted to make comment.