Ampatuan's wife removed from mayoral post

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The wife of detained “Maguindanao Massacre” suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. was stripped of her position as mayor for having been absent from office for so long without official leave.

A senior member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan,  lawyer Bobby Katambak, said the legislative and executive branches of the provincial government now recognize the first councilor of Datu Unsay municipality, Monawara Ampatuan, as acting mayor, replacing Reshal Ampatuan.

Reshal is one of two wives of the detained Andal Jr., a key suspect in the now infamous Nov. 23, 2009 massacre, which left 58 people dead, more than half of them journalists.

Katambak said it was “by operation of law,” based on provisions of the Local Government Code, that Monawara assumed as acting mayor of Datu Unsay.

“There is a vacuum in the municipal leadership due to the long absence of the mayor and the vice-mayor,” Katambak said.

Datu Unsay Vice-Mayor Janine Mamalapat is also to be replaced anytime soon for having been absent from office for more than six months, too.

Employees of the Datu Unsay local government unit said Reshal had received huge amounts, in forms of cash advances, monthly salary and other benefits from their local government unit despite her absence from office with official leave.

Monawara took her oath as acting mayor before Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on Thursday.

She started discharging the duties of a municipal mayor at the first working hour on Monday.

Mangudadatu said the municipal council of Datu Unsay had passed a resolution urging their first councilor, who garnered most number of votes, from among other aspirants for the municipal council during the May 13, 2013 elections, to assume as mayor in the absence of Reshal.

Reshal and her children have long relocated somewhere else, leaving their house in Shariff Aguak, the old provincial capital, to caretakers.

One of the houses of Andal, Jr. in Shariff Aguak, located just meters away from the plush mansion of his father, detained former governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., was burned down by still unidentified arsonists last year.