Mindanao politicians see level playing field

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao , Philippines  – Independent, “non-aligned” politicians in five southern provinces are certain their rivals identified with the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan – whose influence, wealth and war chests helped favored constituent-leaders land to key elective positions even outside of Maguindanao in past elections, are now just as ordinary as them politically.

Leaders in Lanao del Sur, for instance, now see a “level playing field” for the only two candidates for governor in the province, a re-electionist Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., who is an adopted son of detained former Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan,Sr. and a challenger, Solitario Ali Omar, former mayor of Marawi City and a ranking official of the Moro National Liberation Front.

Ampatuan Sr. is the father of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan, Jr., the prime suspect in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people, more than 20 of them journalists, in nearby Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town.

No one can say if it was out of respect, or fear that many political leaders in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao even kiss the hand of Ampatuan Sr. in public when they meet him anywhere, as if he is a modern day political godfather in the autonomous region.

Accusations

It is known all over Marawi City and the more than 40 towns in Lanao del Sur that it was Ampatuan Sr. that bankrolled the candidacy of Adiong during the 2007 elections, where the ARMM police drew flak due to accusations it helped rig the electoral exercise in the province in favor of Adiong and many other Maranaw political leaders identified with the Ampatuans.

Sources in Marawi City, among them peace advocates, said Ampatuan Sr., in fact worked out the designation of his nephew, Superintendent Esmael Ali, who hails from Datu Piang, Maguindanao, as Lanao del Sur’s provincial police director, two months prior to the Nov. 23 incident in Maguindanao, as part of the preparations for the re-election bid of Adiong.

“If the Lanao del Sur elections in 2007 were boxing matches, the rivals of those Ampatuan helped win were virtually beaten black and blue. No match at all,” said a ranking professor in the state-run Mindanao State University in Marawi City.

While Ampatuan Sr. was only a provincial chairman for Maguindanao of the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-Christian Muslim Democrats prior to his expulsion from the party last month in connection with the Nov. 23 massacre in his province, he was all along more politically powerful than his son, ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan.

The 44-year-old ARMM governor has also been stripped of his position as regional chairman for the autonomous region of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD as a punitive action against him by the party’s national leadership.

“The game might just possibly be fair now for all independent politicians running against re-electionist mayors, provincial governors, board members and vice mayors that are identified with the Ampatuans,” a mayoral candidate in the first district of Maguindanao told The STAR.

Positive indications

Residents in Parang, a politically hostile town in the first district of Maguindanao, said there are indeed positive indications that local executives who are proteges of both the ARMM governor and Ampatuan Sr. have started to weaken politically as a result of the martial law in the province and their abrupt separation from their political benefactors that are now in government custody.

“Our re-electionist mayor in Parang used to have more than 20 bodyguards when he goes around. Now there are only two policemen escorting him. He no longer has that advantage of having more bodyguards compared to other aspirants for mayor of Parang,” said businessman Hadji Rakil, an ethnic Iranun Muslim.

A mayoral candidate in Parang, dentist Ibrahim Ibay, a former regional speaker of the ARMM, Regional Assembly, said the martial law in the province will help catalyze peaceful and clean local elections next year.

Many mayors in the second district of Maguindanao were re-elected unopposed in 2004 and in 2007 just for being related by blood to Ampatuan Sr. who is known for his iron-fisted manner in dealing with political opposition in his turf.

For his political proteges, Ampatuan Sr. applies a maxim tampil ta siya sa dunia, tampil ta taman sa ahirat, which virtually means if we are allies in this world, we shall be allies even in the afterlife.