While American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are looking for Al Qaeda leader and Saudi bad boy Osama Bin Laden, a candidate in the May 2007  Philippine elections who calls himself ‘Osama Bin Laden’ is aiming for a seat in the provincial board.

The Pinoy Osama Bin Laden is Agakhan Mangondato Sharief, 35, who is campaigning to get elected as a board member in the Muslim province of Lanao.

To complete the imitation, Agakhan Mangondato Sharief goes around in militay camouflage, wears the kaffiyeh or hatta (a scarf which is more symbolic of the Palestinian struggle), and makes sure he looks like Osama Bin Laden with his 18-inch beard.

But far from being a terrorist, the Filipino Bin Laden is in fact an educator (school teacher), an environmentalist, and a peace advocate — who just happens to wear combat uniform.

Agakhan Mangondato Sharief  was encourage to use the Osama Bin Laden name after a meeting with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

According to an Associated Press report:

After attending a peace-and-order meeting led by Arroyo in Lanao in 2002, Sharief asked the president to pose for a souvenir picture with him. Somebody in the crowd jokingly told Arroyo that he was known around town by the infamous nickname.

“Oh, I see, the young bin Laden of Mindanao,” Sharief quoted Arroyo as saying. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

“When I walked out of that meeting, I had a different name — bin Laden,” Sharief told The Associated Press by telephone.

Osama Bin Laden may just be the kind of leader Mindanao is looking for.

Photo: Osama Bin Laden talks to a group of kids in Marawi City.

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