Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao

Sultan Kudarat town was founded as a municipality by the name Nuling on August 18, 1947, by Executive Order No. 82 signed by President Manuel Roxas. The town had its present name after it became the capital of the newly carved province of Maguindanao in 1977.

The town was part of the province of Shariff Kabunsuan from October 2006 until its nullification by the Supreme Court in July 2008.

The original seat of the Sultanate of Maguindanao was located at the mouth of the Maguindanao river (now Matampay) but later transferred to the nearby sitio at the bank of the Nuling Creek of Barangay Salimbao of this Municipality.

Sultan Mastura Kudarat, a royal lineage of the hero soldier Sultan Dipatuan Kudaratullah was appointed by American Governor Carpenter as President of the Municipal District of Nuling. The former, however, tactfully declined said and after and instead, designated his son, Datu Mamadra Mastura for the position, who served from 1922 to 1923. He was succeeded by the following executives:

• 1924 to 1926, Datu Lembak Mastura;
• 1927 to 1934, Datu Baraguir Mamadra;
• 1935 to 1945, Datu Baraguir Mamadra, first elected Municipal district Mayor of Nuling under the Philippine Commonwealth with Barangay Salimbao as the seat of the Government of Nuling;
• 1945 to 1946, Datu Dagadas Taha, appointed by President Sergio Osmena through the recommendation of Former Congressman Salipada K. Pendatun of Cotabato Province;
• 1946, Datu Abas Mastura;
• 1946, Datu Ali Compania;
• 1947 to 1951, Datu Mokamad Mamadra, first elected Mayor of the newly created regular Municipality of Nuling;
• 1951 to 1955, Datu Osmena Mamadra;
• 1956 to July 1977, Hadji Datu Sanggacala Mamadra Baraguir, first elected Municipal Mayor of the newly named Sultan Kudarat Municipality (formerly Nuling).

Almost ten (10) years later, after the creation of the regular Municipality of Nuling on August 18, 1947, then President Carlos P. Garcia, aware on the development of the town, issued Executive Order No. 267 fixing the seat of the Municipal Government of Sultan Kudarat to Barangay Dalumangcob of the town.

• July 1977 to January 30, 1980, Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA, appointed by the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand E. Marcos.

On the same year, following the assumption of Mayor Mastura, late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, issued Presidential Decree No. 1170, transferring the seat of Government of the Province of Maguindanao from the Municipality of Maganoy to the Municipality of Sultan Kudarat on July 11, 1977;

• January 30, 1980 to June 30, 1998, Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA, elected on January 30, 1980 by landslide votes of the people;
• July 1, 1998 to June 30, 2001, Bai Shajida Mastura-Bandila, first woman elected Municipal Mayor.

In a plebiscite conducted on March 15, 2003, the electorates of this Municipality unanimously voted in favor of the creation of a new Municipality in the name of Sultan Mastura, being a son of Sultan Dipatuan Kudaratullah, better known as Sultan Kudarat. The New Municipality of Sultan Mastura has absorbed 13 barangays from the former leaving on 39 for its mother Municipality.

• July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2004, Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA, once again elected as Municipal Mayor unopposed;
• July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2007, Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA, elected again as Municipal Mayor;
• July 1, 2007 to present, Bai Shajida Mastuar-Bandila, again elected as Municipal Mayor of the Municipality of Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan, while his father, former Mayor Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA, run for the position of Governor of the newly created Shariff Kabunsuan Province;
• July 1, 2010 Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA returned as the Municipal Mayor of the municipality with his daughter, former mayor Bai Shajida Biruar Mastura as his Vice Mayor;
• July 1, 2013 Datu Shameem B. Mastura, grandson of the Datu Tucao O. Mastura, CPA assumed as newly elected mayor of the municipality of Sultan Kuidarat, Maguindanao. He is the youngest mayor at the age of 23 in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). He is ranked as the third youngest mayor in the Philippine History at the age of 23 with Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. as second at the age of 22 in Tarlac and the first Jono Humamoy at the age of 21 of Inabanga, Bohol in 2007 and perhaps even in the Philippine Political History.

Presently, Sultan Kudarat has a total land area of 71,151 hectares and an unofficial Population Census Result of 152,667 and a 24,651 households as of August 1, 2007.

The LGU had a poverty incidence of 35.1% or there are about 57,147 of the 181,419 population who are living below the ARMM's poverty threshold of 75,000 or an annual per capita income of P10,714 for the family size of 7. This poverty incidence is 1.4% lower than the National average of 32.9%.

Though Sultan Kudarat hosts seventy percent of the agro-industries of the Province of Shariff Kabunsuan, its main economy is derived from the agriculture sector.

The municipality of Sultan Kudarat hosts Lamsan, one of the largest corn products manufacturers in the Philippines. The company provides employment to hundreds of workers in the municipality and nearby towns of Maguindanao.

• List of renamed cities and municipalities of the Philippines

• Sultan Kudarat Profile at PhilAtlas.com
• Philippine Standard Geographic Code
• 2000 Philippine Census Information
• Local Governance Performance Management System
• Inquirer.net, Sultan Kudarat town aims for nat’l recognition