Yesterday, a shocking news broke out on National TV and over various Radio Stations; 34 journalists who accompanied the wife of Buluan town Vice Mayor Ishmael Mangudadatu in Maguindanao together with numerous supporters and relatives were hijacked and massacred by 100+ armed men while en route to the Commission on Elections regional office to file a Certificate of Candidacy. Reports said that the people in the convoy including the journalists and kin of the vice mayor were brutally tortured, shot, raped, and murdered. Their bodies were mutilated, beheaded, slashed by the throat, ran down by vehicles and thrown side by side on shallow graves. Ishmael Mangudadatu is running for Governor in Maguindanao and the rivalry between the Mangudadatu and Ampatuans are the bitterest so far after the filing of CoC started 4 days ago. But who are these warring political clans who are capable of annihilating each other’s family members and even involving innocent civilians and journalists caught in between them? Let us know their background courtesy of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA News Network.

WHO ARE THE AMPATUANS?

The sound of sirens precedes the passing of a long convoy of 4×4 sport utility vehicles. As if on cue, jeepneys and private vehicles begin moving to the right side of the street, where they all then ground to halt.

“Kailangan tumabi ka, kasi babanggain ka nila. Palalabasin nilang kaaway ka (You have to get out of their way, otherwise they’ll hit your car. And then they’ll make it appear you’re one of their enemies),” explains an old man watching the scene by the roadside.

Asked if he knows whose convoy of black, heavily tinted vehicles is whizzing by, the man replies without hesitation: “Si Governor. Ganyan ang mga sasakyan niya (That’s how his vehicles look like).”

In the last two weeks, this southern province has become one of the sites of a serial cat-and-mouse battle between soldiers and rebels from a faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), displacing thousands of people. But the armed clashes aside, residents here know that only one family wields real power in Maguindanao: the Ampatuans, led by its acknowledged patriarch, Governor Andal Ampatuan.

It may not only be peace between combatants but respite from political clans that Maguindanao needs.

The Ampatuans are just the latest in a long line of political dynasties that have endured in Mindanao. Yet while the Ampatuan clan has lorded over Maguindanao only since 2001, several of its members have already managed to grab key government positions, elective and appointive, and not only in the province itself

In 2005, Andal Ampatuan’s son Zaldy, then 38 years old, became the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the youngest ever to head the regional government.

And if the results of the recent AMMM polls are any indication, the Ampatuans seem to be digging in for the long haul. The baby-faced Zaldy took more than 90 percent of the votes among seven candidates in the ARMM elections held just a few weeks ago. His closest rival Indanan Mayor Alvarez Isnaji got just a tad over two percent of the votes.

It did not help Isnaji any that he was battling kidnapping charges filed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) against him and his son Haider, midway through the campaign. But Ma. Krizna Gomez of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) observes: “We were all surprised to not see any election campaign materials (other than Zaldy Ampatuan’s) around the province. The dynasty runs deep into the entire political set-up and this is capped by the election result itself.”

PRIVATE ARMIES

While Moros have always been proud of both their long history of resistance and a rich and colorful culture, politics in many areas in Muslim Mindanao are still overshadowed by the influence of powerful clans that dictate both affiliations and allegiances, especially in long-running blood feuds called rido. These clans hold sway over their areas much like feudal overlords of old, with the power of life or death over their subjects at their fingertips.

Andal Ampatuan has four wives and over 30 children, and intermarriages with other political clans have made his political stock stronger. But political analysts trace the clan’s formidable clout to two main factors: guns and the blessings of Malacanang. They even note that no less than the Palace made it legal for the Ampatuans to have hundreds of armed men and women under their employ.

The 1987 Constitution bans private armed groups. In July 2006, however, the Arroyo administration issued Executive Order 546, allowing local officials and the PNP to deputize barangay tanods as “force multipliers” in the fight against insurgents. In practice, the EO allows local officials to convert their private armed groups into legal entities with a fancy name: civilian volunteer organizations (CVO).

The private armies of these ruling clans are, for all intents and purposes, also funded through government coffers. Since the local government code allows local officials to choose their local police chiefs, many local policemen are ineffectual at best, or act as bodyguards of the local mayor or congressman. In addition, local officials have also effectively used the threat of the Moro secessionist movement in the area to deputize and arm their own men using taxpayers’ money. These deputies or militiamen are called civilian volunteer officers, or CVOs, who join occasional military operations, but for the most part merely take orders from local officials.

Interestingly, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued the EO just weeks after a bombing in the Shariff Aguak public market that killed five people. Andal Ampatuan, who has survived several other ambushes, was said to have been the target.

According to a military officer who served for 16 years in ARMM — five of them in Maguindanao — Andal Ampatuan employs about 200 CVO members. The officer adds that Ampatuan’s sons and relatives maintain armed men, supposedly for their protection. (Andal’s eldest son Saudi was killed in a bomb blast in Shariff Aguak 2002.)

“Everybody carries firearms, mga paltik (homemade guns),” says the military officer. “Or (they) either borrow from the military or the PNP, or they buy.”

A soldier who spent five years on assignment in Maguindanao says of the CVOs here: “They support the internal security requirement of the capitol or the municipio.” He adds that while some of the CVOs are paid by the local government in areas where they serve, they are often “borrowed” for personal use by local officials.

And whenever they board the back of spiffy pickups that are staples of Ampatuan convoys, these CVO members typically lug long firearms. At times, the convoys of 20 vehicles or more also begin and end with pickups mounted with big machine guns.

Indeed, long before the military resumed chasing the MILF in earnest across the region, Maguindanao was already dotted with checkpoints. Soldiers manned entrances to municipal halls, and armored vehicles hogged major road networks.

PCIJ tried for months to interview Andal Ampatuan here and during his visits in Manila, but Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas repeatedly said the governor does not grant interviews. Instead, it has been Unas who has fielded questions from PCIJ.

In an interview with PCIJ late last year, Unas said that the older Ampatuan’s political stance has earned his clan several enemies, hence the need for heightened security. Unas explained that while previous Maguindanao leaders played footsies with secessionist forces, “Governor Ampatuan is not really sympathetic to the MILF or other forces wishing for a separatist Muslim state.”

But Datu Michael Mastura, former congressman of Maguindanao’s first district, seems less than convinced by the argument. “I will tell you, the word ‘impunity’ does not even suit it. It’s inappropriate,” he says, referring to the Ampatuans’ chronic show of force. Pointing to the clan’s numerous bodyguards and vehicles, Mastura wonders aloud: “Just imagine, how do you maintain them? How do you house them?”

No one here is ready to come forward with any answers to that, but at the very least, the presence of armed men and women helps explain why residents would rather not do anything to cross an Ampatuan. One journalist who unwittingly did is certainly thankful that all he got was a dressing-down from the provincial governor.

The journalist had helped a colleague get in touch with the Ampatuans for an article that the governor apparently perceived to be unflattering. The helpful journalist says he was summoned to the governor’s mansion and there received a tongue-lashing. “I just sat there,” he recalls, “and took it, not saying a word.”

MONOPOLY AND OLIGARCHY

CenPEG’s Tuazon, though, cautions against stereotyping this conduct of elections as unique to Maguindanao and ARMM. “Oligarchs also rule in Luzon and Visayas, and you will see a lot of similarities in what is happening there in the Moro homeland,” he says.

“Ampatuan is no different from (Luis) Chavit Singson,” points out Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr., who briefly chaired the government peace panel with the MILF. Singson, former governor of Ilocos Sur in northern Luzon, has built a reputation for keeping an iron grip on his home province.

Unas himself acknowledges the perception that Ampatuan is a warlord. Reached by phone by PCIJ recently, he said, “May katotohanan din siguro. The same way na may perception na warlord sina Joson (of Nueva Ecija) at Singson, (Probably there’s truth to that. The same way there is a perception that the Josons and the Singsons are warlords).”

But the provincial administrator denied that the capitol pays for the CVOs protecting Ampatuan and his clan. He said that the CVOs are hired and funded by town mayors, while those who guard the governor are made up of soldiers, policemen, and civilians “who, as Muslims, will die for their leader.”

This relationship between leaders and the governed, said Unas, has its roots in the history of Muslim communities down south, and is found not only in Maguindanao.

IMPOVERISHED MAGUINDANAO

In Mercado’s view, the resiliency of the Ampatuan clan will rest mainly on its ability to deliver the needs of its constituents. Then again, if Mercado is right, the Ampatuans’ days in power may be numbered, based on the province’s sorry showing in several sectors.

For one, despite the Ampatuans’ expanded powerbase, Maguindanao’s poverty numbers are worsening. In 2000, the poverty incidence was recorded at 59.3 percent. It grew to 60.4 percent in 2003, and rose further to 62 percent in 2006, turning Maguindanao into the third poorest province in the country.

For another, Maguindanao’s spending for education remains low, even as the elementary teacher-to-pupil ratio has worsened to 51 in school year 2005-06, from 43.9 in school year 2000-01.

These bad statistics are among the reasons why, according to the Philippine Human Development Report (PHDR) of 2005, only 39.7 percent of adults in Maguindanao have six years of basic education, compared with the national average of 84 percent.

Too, the PHDR reveals that Maguindanao has the second lowest life expectancy in the Philippines at 52 years, edged out only by Tawi-Tawi’s 51.2 years. The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reports as well that the number of health stations in the province has remained stagnant at 163, from 2000 to 2006.

Amid worsening poverty and education services for its population of 600,000 as of last year, Maguindanao has been pouring money into new town halls and a bigger capitol. The latter is now estimated to cost the province about P116 million, or nearly twice as much as the original price tag of P60 million.

According to Unas, Andal Ampatuan had asked President Arroyo for help in funding the new capitol project. Arroyo, Unas said, committed an initial P20 million, paving the way for construction work to start.

The renovation project has since evolved into a government center that will feature other huge structures, including a sports-and-culture center that would cost P80 million.

Maguindanao is not lacking in funds. On top of benefiting from foreign and ARMM-funded projects, it received an internal revenue allotment (IRA) of P555 million in 2005, which grew to P633 million the following year.

Yet of the P590 million budget the capitol lined up for 2006, P124 million or 21 percent was set aside for the provincial governor’s office alone. Over P185 million or 31 percent, meanwhile, went to the salaries and benefits of the capitol’s 587 employees.

PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION

The people in Maguindanao offer a common opinion of Andal Ampatuan as “mabait (a good person).” One resident says, “If you need a job, he’ll provide one for you.” Another intones, “We don’t say no to him because he takes care of us.”

But such positive comments almost always come with a caveat: “Basta sundin mo ang gusto niya (As long as you do as he says).”

“He is like a pharaoh, that’s what people call him,” says Mastura, himself a member of one of Mindanao’s prominent families. “You don’t go against his wishes.”

The one person who has tried to keep the Ampatuans in check, albeit in his own turf, is Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Over the years, Duterte, who is known for his tough stance against crime, has repeatedly warned various clans — not only the Ampatuans, to be sure — against “misbehaving” in Davao City. But Duterte has also zeroed in on younger Ampatuan scions for using sirens whenever they drive around Davao. In 2006, Duterte let it rip when three Ampatuan youths were arrested in his city for possession of high-powered firearms, including rifles fitted with telescopic sights, and rounds of ammunition.

“Davao City is not your kingdom,” a fuming Duterte had reportedly said. “If you want to show off, you better do it in your place, not here.”

Unfortunately for Duterte, Maguindanao has no known nightlife to keep privileged youths entertained and occupied.

Once the sun sets in this province, the roads turn empty, save for one or two vehicles rushing to their destinations, and the occasional convoy of huge, black cars and pickups flashing their lights and sounding their sirens. Invariably, the convoy carries an Ampatuan as passenger.

HELLO GARCI

To some political analysts, it is easy to explain why the Ampatuans command solid hold on Maguindanao: The clan enjoys close ties with the Palace in faraway Manila, simply because the clan has managed to deliver the votes for administration candidates.

In its 2007 Elections Forensics Report, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) noted: “The Ampatuan dynasty based in Maguindanao province is Arroyo’s present conduit in helping ensure her influence over the whole of Mindanao, which hosts many of the country’s grizzled but otherwise powerful political clans.”

During the 2004 presidential elections, “(Governor Andal) Ampatuan addressed the political requirement of Arroyo,” says Bobby Tuazon, CenPEG’s director for policy study, publication, and advocacy. “She needed somebody to control the votes.”

In the controversial “Hello Garci” recordings, then elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was heard saying that Maguindanao would not be “much of a problem” for President Arroyo. His words turned out to be more than prophetic, with Maguindanao giving Arroyo 193,938 votes, against the 59,892 votes obtained by popular action film star Fernando Poe Jr. In Ampatuan and Datu Piang towns, Poe even scored zero, and in the capital Shariff Aguak and other Maguindanao towns, received just a handful of votes.

In the 2007 congressional and local elections, the 12 senatorial candidates of the administration’s Team Unity slate made a clean sweep of the polls in Maguindanao, or scored 12-0, to be exact. Family members and allies of the Ampatuans who ran for local positions also clinched wins.

Maguindanao officials have since brushed off suspicions of election fraud, saying local candidates did not bother campaigning for their own seats. They say that “negotiations” were held before the elections to “amicably” settle the battle for positions. Besides, they note, many of the Ampatuan candidates had run unopposed and thus had devoted time to campaign for the administration’s senatorial slate.

In his interview with PCIJ last year, Maguindanao provincial administrator Unas said political contests here are settled even before any balloting through “consultation and consensus-building.”

“People are critical of our system and ridicule us for the manner by which we choose our leaders,” he said. But, he asserted, it is a system that works for the province, “not that demo-democracy.”

“We know that the Manila system does not fit us,” Unas said. “We have stabilized the political landscape because there’s no contest every election. This is one better way for us Muslims coming out with our leaders.”

CenPEG fellow Ely H. Manalansan Jr., however, insists that shura or the Islamic practice of consultation was not a factor in Team Unity’s 12-0 win in Maguindanao. He says that even Islamic experts dismiss such an assertion, adding, “(It) merely serves as a justification for the widespread and systematic fraud perpetrated by the administration during elections in Mindanao.”

Last year, public schoolteacher Musa Dimasidsing had also revealed that days before the 2007 vote, he had seen teachers and students writing and then putting their thumbmarks on ballots. Days after he spoke up, Dimasidsing was shot dead; his murder remains unsolved.

WHO ARE THE MANGUDADATU CLAN?

The Mangudadatu clan is most prominent in Sultan Kudarat province, although it also enjoys some local political clout in Maguindanao. The following are members of the clan who have held various political positions at various times:

Datu Pax Mangudadatu
- representative, 1st District of Sultan Kudarat (2007-2010)
- governor, Sultan Kudarat (2004-2007)
- mayor, Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat (1988-1998)
- Datu Pax is the father of Datu Suharto and Ruth, and the father-in-law of Datu Raden.

Datu Suharto Mangudadatu
- governor, Sultan Kudarat (2007-2010)
- representative, Lone District of Sultan Kudarat (2004-2007)
- mayor, Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat (1998-2004)
- Datu Suharto is the son of Datu Pax, brother of Ruth, and the brother-in-law of Datu Raden Sakaluran.

Ruth Sakaluran
- mayor, Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat (2007-2010)
- Ruth is the daughter of Datu Pax, sister of Datu Suharto, and wife of Datu Raden.

Datu Raden Sakaluran
- mayor, Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat (2004-2007)
- Datu Raden is the son-in-law of Datu Pax, brother-in-law of Datu Suharto and husband of Ruth.

There are also Mangudadatu members who hold local seats in Maguindanao province:

Datu Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu is currently vice mayor of Buluan municipality.
Bai Eden Mangudadatu is currently vice mayor of Mangudadatu municipality.

THEY WERE ALLIES BEFORE

MANILA, Philippines — The Ampatuans and Mangudadatus have reigned in Maguindanao politics since 1986 when the revolutionary government of then President Corazon Aquino appointed officers-in-charge to local elective posts of mayors, municipal, provincial and village legislators, as well as governors and their deputies.

The patriarchs of both clans— Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Datu Pua Mangudadatu —were appointed mayors of their respective municipalities, Maganoy (now Shariff Aguak) and Buluan, Maguindanao.

The two men never lost an election and their children have also entered politics and emerged winners, too. Many saw their political careers thrive in the positions they have held, among them, Governor Zaldy Uy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and incumbent Buluan town Vice-Mayor Esmael Toto Mangudadatu, who is now said to be running for Maguindanao governor, the post to be left by Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. to his son, Andal Jr.

The two families are related, at least, by affinity.

The late Datu Pua is the father of one of the victims of the massacre in Maguindanao on Monday — Deah Mangudadatu-Dilangalen — sister of Esmael. She was married to Datu Nasser Dilangalen, a cousin of Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, whose daughter is married to a grandson of the elder Ampatuan.

It was said that before he died of lingering illness, Datu Pua had left his politician children under the care and tutelage of the elder Ampatuan, the two old men having been very close friends.

In 2001, the Mangudadatus joined the band of local leaders supporting the candidacy of Ampatuan Sr. for governor of Maguindanao, against then incumbent Governor Datu Zacaria Candao.

A rift between the two families started with rumors that Esmael was running for governor in the May 2010 elections.

Their ties were severed when the Mangudadatus purportedly blocked the creation of the Adam municipality to be culled from the towns that they control in the south eastern tip of the province. It was also said that the proposed town did not meet the population required by law.

Adam is reportedly the name of the deceased father of Supt. Piang Adam, who had retired as police provincial director of Maguindanao early this year. The police officer is said to be loyal to the elder Ampatuan and to his son Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay municipality.

As Adam and his relatives began establishing residency in Pandag town in the political territory of the Mangudadatus, he reported an incident of attack in late July 2009 by armed men, during which a close kin of the retired officer was killed. Subsequent police pursuit operations had some of the Mangudadatu followers disarmed.

Sources:

• PCIJ – Putting Maguindanao in context
• PCIJ – The Clan Rules in Maguindanao
• GMA7 – The Mangudadatu Clan of Sultan Kudarat
• PDI – They were allies before