COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 14 July) – An official of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has ordered an investigation of a town mayor in Maguindanao del Sur for allegedly threatening to handcuff and imprison market vendors who have no business permits.
BARMM Interior Minister Naguib Sinarimbo ordered the probe after Mayor Solaiman Sandigan of Datu Salibo drew criticisms on social media for allegedly issuing the threats while going around the town’s public market early this week to see if the stall owners have complied with the business permit requirement.
Sinarimbo, a lawyer, stressed that mayors could only exercise their regulatory power, including the imposition of penalties, over local businesses based on existing ordinances.
“Above it is not right, there should be due process,” the minister said, adding he wanted to hear the side of Sandigan.
“Those who have no business permits will be handcuffed,” the mayor was heard telling the vendors in the vernacular while inspecting the public market wearing a black jacket, a red bull cap, cargo shorts, and slippers.
However, Rex Torino, speaking for Sandigan, denied the mayor threatened to jail or handcuff those without business permits.
When told about the viral video that was posted on Facebook that showed Sandigan telling the vendors without business permits that they would be handcuffed, Torino said, “It was just a joke.”
“Our mayor is joker, nobody was jailed, nobody was handcuffed, It was a simple way of Mayor Sandigan to convince vendors to secure business permits,” he said, adding that people around the mayor were laughing as he was cracking jokes.
Torino said the mayor paid for the business permits of some small vendors in the market from his own pocket to encourage the others to pay local taxes. (Ferdinandh Cabrera/MindaNews)
