P120-M capitol building built by Ampatuans eyed as school site

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Education Secretary Armin Luistro and Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu have agreed to convert into a public school the P120-million capitol building the Ampatuan clan built in 2006.

Once considered as an icon of political impunity of the Ampatuans, the three-story, 6,000-square meter building, sits on a six-hectare property in Shariff Aguak town. 

Luistro gave Mangudadatu his approval after the governor verbally proposed to him the conversion, during the opening of an international peace conference at the Notre Dame University here on Friday.

Luistro and Mangudadatu, chairman of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council, were among the guests in the two-day event organized by Orlando Cardinal Quevedo and the foreign entities involved in the peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“There is no better way of putting that huge, very expensive building into good use than converting it into a public school,” Mangudadatu told Luistro.

Luistro said he was in favor of Mangudadatu’s plan and promised to help push the project forward.  He said the conversion of the capitol building would help address the problem on classroom shortage.

Mangudadatu said he would inform the local DepEd office and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman about the plan.

Luistro and Mangudadatu also agreed to tap lawyers who would study the viability and legal ramification of their plan.

Mangudadatu and his subordinates have never occupied the capitol since he was first elected in office in 2010 due to security reasons.

The capitol in Shariff Aguak is being used as temporary command headquarters of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade to prevent looters from breaking in.