COTABATO CITY, Philippines – While still hoping that the spirit of autonomy would be preserved in a future Supreme Court ruling, career officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao welcome the nominee of Senator Franklin Drilon to the much-coveted slot for officer-in-charge (OIC) in the ARMM governorship.

In a random survey conducted Thursday by the local media among 30 middle management career officials (holding permanent items) in various regional agencies, 26 of them expressed preference for lawyer Macabangkit Lanto, a former diplomat, legislator and bureaucrat, for appointment by the President as ARMM OIC-governor.

Lanto is a former Philippine ambassador to Egypt and Sudan, undersecretary in the justice and tourism departments, and speaker of the Legislative body of the defunct Regional Autonomous Governor for Central Mindanao.

He belongs to the national government’s shortlist of five nominees to the position of OIC ARMM governor. The four others are former Party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman, lawyer Sanchez Ali, former Muslim Affairs Secretary Dimas Pundato, and educator Norma Sharief.

The survey respondents were asked who among the five nominees they would want appointed OIC-governor in case the Supreme Court upheld its Sept. 18 ruling that declared constitutional R.A. 10153, the law synchronizing the Aug. 8, 2011 ARMM elections with the 2013 mid-term polls and authorizing the President to appoint OICs in the region’s 26 elective positions.

On Wednesday, Senator Drilon, a key official of the ruling Liberal Party, asked President Aquino to avoid naming a “trapo” (traditional politician) in the ARMM’s top position and instead choose Lanto.

Drilon said Lanto possesses the “combined skills of a diplomat, a graft-busting prosecutor and effective manager-bureaucrat.”

Lanto’s experience as a diplomat, legislator and bureaucrat “can be put in good use in restoring the prestige and the credibility of ARMM as a foreign investment destination and recipient of foreign development assistance,” Drilon said.

“His skills as a lawyer and a justice undersecretary will be handy when he eventually prosecutes the grafters and plunderers (in past ARMM administrations),” he added.

Drilon said he was impressed by Lanto’s assurance that he would not seek election in 2013 once he is appointed OIC-governor of ARMM so he could concentrate in instituting reforms.

In Thursday’s random survey, majority of the 30 respondents also suggested that an ARMM OIC should not be a “feudal politician,” citing Lanto and incumbent Acting Regional Governor Hooky Alonto-Adiong as scions of political families never involved in feudal politics.