Political clan rivalry has led to mass murder in the Philippines. Ken Fuller reports
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo’s declaration of martial law in Maguindanao, a province on the southern island of Mindanao, came on December 5, just one day after large caches of guns and ammunition – sufficient to arm 1,000 soldiers, according to the national police chief – were seized from the homes of the family accused of responsibility for the slaughter of 57 people on November 23.
On that fateful day, a convoy supporting Esmail Mangudadatu was travelling to the Commission on Elections office to file his certificate of candidacy for the position of provincial governor in next May’s elections. Mangudadatu says that, having the previous week noted movements by armed followers of the Ampatuan family, which has held sway in Maguindanao since 2001, he had decided that his certificate should be filed by women, accompanied by as many journalists as possible, thinking that this would deter attacks.
Before it reached its destination, the convoy was halted at a checkpoint manned by 100 police, militia and “civilian volunteers” – essentially bodyguards said to be employed by the Ampatuans. Their leader was allegedly Andal Ampatuan Jr, mayor of Datu Unsay town and a prospective candidate for provincial governor.
All members of the convoy, including Mangudadatu’s wife and two sisters, two women lawyers and at least 30 media workers were killed. A backhoe loader owned by the provincial government was used to bury some of the bodies. The graves were, it seems, dug earlier with the intention of interring all the corpses along with their vehicles, but the murderers were interrupted when troops, alerted by a helicopter, began to make their way to the area.
The family patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr, has been elected provincial governor three times and many of the mayors in Maguindanao’s 22 municipalities are Ampatuan relatives. When the Supreme Court ruled that a new province – Shariff Kabunsuan, carved out of Maguindanao – had been illegally constituted and should be reincorporated into its parent, it was held that Andal Sr could not be considered governor of the reconstituted province. His son Zaldy, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), then intervened and in January this year appointed officers in charge to all positions: a brother (previously vice-governor) as acting governor and a brother-in-law (previously a town mayor) as acting vice-governor.
The elder Ampatuan, who has lost two sons in clan warfare, is usually elected unopposed, claiming: “It’s because of popular support. Because I am so loved by the constituencies of the municipalities, they ask to have my sons as representatives.” The 1987 constitution contains an anti-dynasty provision. However, as members of various dynasties populate the Congress, the required legislation has never been enacted.
Electoral controversy and violence is hardly new in Maguindanao. In 2005, a recording surfaced of a conversation the previous year in which an election commissioner assured Mrs Arroyo, then running for the presidency, that the province would not be “much of a problem”. According to the official results, her opponent, popular movie star Fernando Poe Jr, lost the province by a landslide, improbably receiving zero votes in some towns.
In 2007, Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr offered mayors a million pesos (about £10,600 at the time) each if they would deliver a 12-0 victory for the administration’s slate for the Senate elections. They duly did so, with nineteen senatorial candidates receiving not a single vote in the 22 municipalities. There were complaints that no elections had actually been held in many parts of the province and that teachers drafted in as election workers had been forced to complete the ballots the day before polling day. A district schools supervisor who exposed some of the electoral fraud was shot dead.
Largely as a safeguard against reprisals after the Maguindanao atrocity, on November 24, Cotabato City and the provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudurat were placed under a state of emergency. Senior police officers allegedly linked to the massacre have been relieved of their duties. The ARMM’s police director, who allegedly refused to provide the Mangudadatu convoy with an escort, is merely being “investigated”.
Although the military disarmed all militiamen in the province, there were complaints that the army failed to respond to reports of earlier movements by Ampatuan’s armed men. The Philippine Star has reported the claim of one intelligence operative that his superiors told him: “We can’t do anything, because it’s a political thing and we should not interfere”. Two senior officers have been relieved and placed under investigation.
Former defence secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr, now the administration’s choice for president, promptly called for the arrest of the Ampatuans and the expulsion of the clan leaders from their party. They were duly expelled on November 25. Teodoro has embraced the bereaved Mangudadato as the administration’s candidate for governor – although he is indisputably the head of a yet another political clan.
Widespread fears that the authorities were reluctant to move against the Ampatuans were hardly allayed when, the day after the massacre, Zaldy Ampatuan announced that the whole autonomous region had complete trust in the national police. Nor did the situation improve when presidential adviser on Mindanao Jesus Dureza saw fit to meet the three leading Ampatuans.
The worrying lack of propriety so often exhibited by the rich and powerful of the Philippines in even the most critical situations was perhaps most starkly illustrated by deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo when she said: “I don’t think the President’s friendship with the Ampatuans will be severed. Just because they’re in this situation doesn’t mean we will turn our backs on them.”
Andal Jr finally turned himself in on November 26 and, without handcuffs, was flown to Manila. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has dismissed Ampatuan’s claim that it was behind the carnage as “absurd – even a small kid would not believe it”. This assessment shared by most observers. According to justice secretary Agnes Devanadera: “Many witnesses” have told prosecutors that Ampatuan ordered the deaths and even shot some of the victims himself.
The government insists that imposition of martial law came, after reports that armed groups were ready to take action if the Ampatuans were arrested. Andal Sr and Zaldy were arrested on the same day.
Although the wheels of justice now seem to be picking up speed, the administration faces a crucial test. This is a country where cases have in the past been undermined by botched or tardy prosecutions. Devanadera says she has been warned to “go slow”. In Cotabato City, the likely site of proceedings, threats have been received by prosecutors and judges, leading to a request that the cases be transferred to Manila.
Failure to prosecute and punish all the guilty will signal a further descent into lawlessness and give encouragement to those who would dub the Philippines a “failed state”.
Ken Fuller is a PhilipPolitical clan rivalry has led to mass murder
in the Philippines. Ken Fuller reportspines-based journalist
