GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 08 October) – Two seasoned politicians will vie for the gubernatorial post in North Cotabato (Cotabato province), with a former governor challenging the reelection bid of the incumbent governor.
Former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Amas, Kidapawan City late afternoon Tuesday, a move that will bring him to another face-off with incumbent Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza.
Pinol lost to Mendoza during the gubernatorial race in 2013.
Mendoza, seeking reelection for her second term, filed her COC on Sunday, October 6.
After her 2013 election to office, Mendoza, the second female governor of the province, served three-full terms, or nine years.
Before becoming governor, Mendoza was a member of the House of Representatives for the first district of Cotabato from 2001 to 2007.
She won as vice governor in the 2019 elections and in 2022 she was again elected as governor. She is the daughter of a military man who became mayor of their town in Carmen, Cotabato province.
Piñol, tagged by friends and social media followers as “a farmer, journalist, mayor, governor, agriculture secretary and a rural development advocate,” is the son of Bernardo Pinol, an educator who also became a member of the Cotabato provincial legislative board.
The younger Piñol had served as Cotabato governor for three terms from 1998 to 2007. He was vice governor from 2007 to 2010.
During the Duterte administration, he served as agriculture secretary and chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority. (Rommel Rebollido / MindaNews)
