KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Three more towns will be created out of Maguindanao province if local voters in the proposed municipalities will decide in favor of the move this July 30.

The creation of the three municipalities -- Datu Hofer Ampatuan, Datu Salibo, and Shariff Saydona Mustapha -- was initially done through legislation by the Regional Assembly of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Engineer Norie Unas, provincial administrator of Maguindanao, said Datu Hofer Ampatuan would cover several barangays in the adjoining towns of Shariff Aguak, which is the provincial capital, and Datu Unsay, which was created some six years ago.

Shariff Saidona and Datu Salibo, on the other hand, will each cover several barangays in Datu Piang and Mamasapano, as well as in Datu Saudi, respectively.

"The creation of these new towns is part of the joint effort of the Regional Assembly and Armm Governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan to decentralize governance to far-flung communities and enable Moro sectors to run local government units right in their midst," said Speaker Rejie Sahali-Generale of the 24-seat regional legislature.

The assembly, under the Armm's charter, can create towns and barangays as long as any such effort would neither alter nor diminish the areas covered by the existing seven congressional districts in the region.

Unas said the provincial office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will administer the July 30 plebiscite in the barangays to be carved out of the long existing towns in the province and, subsequently, be fused together as territories of the three new municipalities.

"We're pretty sure the voters in these areas will vote in favor of the creation of the three new towns because leaders there were part of the extensive consultations and dialogues the Armm governor initiated prior to the passage of the regional law creating these three new towns," Unas said.

Ampatuan said it is also essential for the three new towns to be fully established before year-end to enable residents to vote for their regular municipal officials in next year's local elections.

"The police, the military, the Comelec, and the religious communities are now doing the necessary preparations to ensure a successful, peaceful conduct of separate plebiscites on July 30 in the areas where these three new towns will materialize," Ampatuan said.

At present, Maguindanao has 33 towns, with Shariff Aguak as its capital. It has two congressional districts.

In October 2006, the first congressional district was split off into a new province, Shariff Kabungsuwan, which was nullified two years later by a ruling from the Supreme Court. The area was then reverted to the province of Maguindanao. (Malu Cadelina Manar/Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)