By MINDANEWS
DAVAO CITY – Sixteen of 26 governors in Mindanao were reelected while 12 provinces elected members of the same families to both executive and legislative posts: three father and son teams, two brother and sister teams, three teams of brothers, a team of bother and two sisters, a wife and husband team; a team of cousins and a team of son and parents.
Based on records from the Provincial Board of Canvassers, seven governors-elect will be serving as governor for the first time but they have served previously in other posts or are sons of governors “graduating” at the end of nine years on June 30.
Of 18 who sought reelection, two are not returning to the Capitol. But two former governors are returning to their post after spending three years in another elective post. Six others won even before the ballots were cast on May 13: they ran unopposed.
Among the family teams elected, the Dimaporos of Lanao del Norte and the Plazas of Agusan del Sur — the longest-surviving political clans in Mindanao in half a century — won again the gubernatorial post and their two congressional districts will again be represented by siblings in the case of the Plazas, and in Lanao del Norte, by parents.
Governor Mohammad Khalid Dimaporo was elected to a third term in Lanao del Norte while his parents Imelda and Abdullah, both former governors and representatives, will be representing Congress in the first and second districts. In 2010, the governor’s sister, Fatima Aliah, was elected to represent the second district, a post held by their father Abdullah from 1987 to 1992 and 2001 to 2010 and will be held again in 2013 to 2016. Imelda was governor from 1998 to 2007 and was elected to the 1st district in 2010 to 2013.