Newsbreak Online - Military-Sponsored Warlord

Home

News

Today's Features

Military-Sponsored Warlord

News

Today's Feature

ALL |0-9 |A |B |C |D |E |F |G |H |I |J |K |L |M |N |O |P |Q |R |S |T |U |V |W |X |Y |Z

Article Index

News

Today's Feature

Military-Sponsored Warlord

Written by Gemma Bagayaua
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
COMPARED TO neighboring Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao was relatively calm in the recent elections. Except in hotly contested Pagalungan town, no bomb explosions or other violent incidents were reported to have occurred in the province. But this is no proof that the 12-0 victory that Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan delivered to the administration is indeed the will of the people, or a consequence of their respect for him as their leader, residents and observers familiar with local politics told NEWSBREAK. People are not complaining only because they are afraid that they or their families will become the target of the governor’s ire, a source from a non-partisan organization in the area says. “There is a climate of fear here.” Their fears have basis. Andal Ampatuan has the means to sow terror. The governor controls at least 500 elements of the civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) and Civilian Armed Force Geographical Units (Cafgus) assigned to the area, says a military official whose jurisdiction includes portions of Maguindanao. We reported earlier that contrary to military regulations, the Cafgus in Maguindanao report directly to Ampatuan and not to their military commanders. With virtually an entire band of paramilitary forces under his control, Ampatuan keeps Maguindanao in a very tight grip. It does not help that he also has a reputation for being capable of violence. Various sources say that the governor is believed to have been responsible for the disappearance or death of those who either went against him or were aligned with his rivals. The first among these was Surab Abutasil, who ran against him as mayor of Maganoy in the 1988 elections. Abutasil, a relative of Ampatuan’s first wife, was gunned down inside a restaurant in Shariff Aguak shortly before the elections. Ampatuan was the primary suspect in the case and charges were filed against him but these did not prosper. Other alleged victims include two relatives of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zacaria Candao who disappeared in 2002, following the 2001 local elections where Ampatuan won for the first time as governor of Maguindanao. An elementary school dropout who barely finished Grade 4, Ampatuan owes his rise to power in part to his cozy ties with the military. The relationship started way back during the Marcos regime when he was still vice mayor of Maganoy, Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr., a close friend of the family, says in an interview. Maganoy (now Shariff Aguak) was overrun at that time by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Describing Ampatuan as a “natural born leader,” Mercado says he was one of the few who “showed courage” and chose to remain in town to fight the rebels while many fled the area. On the lookout for allies in the area, the 6th Infantry Division, whose jurisdiction covers most of Maguindanao, cultivated an alliance with Ampatuan by supporting and arming his vigilantes. At the height of the government’s all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the late ’90s, Ampatuan was picked as the ideal candidate who could beat incumbent governor Candao, a suspected MILF supporter. Ampatuan vied for the post in 2001, and easily trounced Candao in the polls. It was a military-sponsored victory, Candao alleged when NEWSBREAK interviewed him in 2004. Government troops, Candao complained, refused to allow his poll watchers into the precincts of some towns. The provincial canvassing for 2001 and that of the 2004 election were held inside the military detachment, away from the prying eyes of the poll watchers and the media. Ampatuan reached the apex of his power after President Arroyo’s 2004 victory. In 2005, he got his son, then Shariff Aguak mayor Zaldy Ampatuan, elected governor of ARMM despite a standing agreement between the President and businessman Ebrahim Paglas that she would support the latter’s bid for the governorship. Zaldy is the first leader who had no links to any of the rebel groups in the area to ever acquire the title. Early on, there were concerns over his capability to govern. But the sense in Malacañang was that the President “could not be perceived as the one who rejected him,” one former ranking official of the Arroyo administration says. This might have been due to Ampatuan’s role in the President’s victory in the 2004 elections. Arroyo garnered a total of 193,938 votes from Maguindanao’s 27 towns while closest rival Fernando Poe Jr. got only 59,892 votes. Poe did not get any vote in three Maguindanao towns. The President, according to the former Cabinet member, made sure that then Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong, a relative of Ampatuan, would be part of the selection process that would choose the administration’s gubernatorial bet. It came as no surprise that Zaldy Ampatuan won the selection process by a single vote. The President did not endorse Zaldy. Instead, she declared the ARMM a “free zone,” where no one would be declared the administration candidate. But the problem with this, the former Arroyo administration official says, was that “if it’s a free zone, it is their (referring to the Ampatuans) zone.”For elections to be truly free in Maguindanao, he former Arroyo administration official says the paramilitary has to be taken out of the picture. After all, under the Local Government Code, members of civilian volunteer organizations are not supposed to be armed. This is not something military officers can do on their own, an officer assigned to the area says, because Ampatuan is also perceived to be influential in the assignment of military officers in the area. Unless there are clear orders from Malacañang, military officers will tend to shy away from actions that the governor may not like, the officer says, because that might be detrimental to their career. “You are only a phone call away from being recalled or reassigned,” he adds. But instead of disarming the paramilitary groups, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno issued a memo in 2006 authorizing the CVOs in Mindanao to bear arms. This still holds today, a boost to Ampatuan’s warlord rule. - Newsbreak INTERACT WITH THIS ARTICLE
Last Updated ( Monday, 23 November 2009 )

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Get to access our archives and premium content. Subscribe to Newsbreak Online for only US$15 a year. How do I Subscribe?

Latest

Newsbreak offers investigative reporting fellowships on health. Click here for details.

LOGIN

Follow This Site On

Email Updates

PRINT EDITIONS

(See past issues here.)

2Checkout (2CO) is the authorized online retailer of Newsbreak products. Purchases are made on their website. 2CO does not share with us your credit card details. Click the button below to find out more.

Are you interested in selling your products online through 2CO? Click here to sign up for a vendor account.