THE RISE AND FALL OF ANDAL AMPATUAN

By Manny Piñol

(1st of 2 parts)

(Note: Following the horrifying Maguindanao Massacre on Nov. 23, 2009, I wrote a two-part article about former Governor Andal Ampatuan which was published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Dec. 28 and 29, 2009. I am posting these old articles today to allow the followers of this page to take a close look at the feared political warlord who is accused to have masterminded the worst political crime in the history of the country, or even the world, which saw the killing of 58 people, including the wife of the incumbent Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu and three dozen journalists. Manny Piñol)

BIG-TIME GAMBLING PATRIARCH

FIGURES IN HIGH-STAKE POLITICS

By Manny Piñol

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 01:28:00 12/28/2009

(First of two parts)

(The writer is a former journalist, a three-term governor of North Cotabato and currently vice governor of the province)

DATU Andal Ampatuan Sr., head of the clan blamed for the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last month, comes from a deeply religious family that traces its lineage to a Muslim proselytizer who came to Mindanao in the 16th century.

His father, Kagui Aguak, was first to stray from the strictures of the Muslim faith. He found pleasure in gambling, drinking and women.

Ampatuan, 70, himself is an inveterate gambler. He is known to play alone in the big table at the Casino Filipino in Davao City and even in Las Vegas.

A reliable source said he would play big stakes mahjong with a Filipino sports hero and a Luzon politician in which the bets are 1-2-3, meaning a simple todas (win) gets P1 million, then P2 million and P3 million.

Designated as commander of a paramilitary unit during the martial law years under President Ferdinand Marcos, Ampatuan entered the political scene first as a vice mayor of Maganoy, now called Shariff Aguak, named after his father.

In 1989, he was elected mayor of Maganoy.

In 2001, with the backing of eight mayors who included Datu Pua Mangudadatu of Buluan, the father of Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, Ampatuan was elected governor of Maguindanao, defeating the powerful Zacaria Candao, a former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Even before he became governor, Ampatuan had already built a reputation of a ruthless politician. He is believed to be responsible for politically related killings, including three of his own cousins, Surab Abutazil, Unsik Opam and Paglala Bantilan, who had been perceived to be threats to his political career.

Cain and Abel replayed?

The brutality of Ampatuan reached unparalleled proportions after the death of his two sons, Candao and Saudi, who were killed in mysterious bombing attacks.

Ampatuan blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the killings, but there were persistent reports that they were purely a family quarrel rooted in politics – Cain and Abel replayed.

Still what followed were reports of mass murder of Ampatuan’s perceived enemies. This was the time when tales about the so-called “Chainsaw Murders” and the “Backhoe Massacres” started to circulate. There were also accounts of people being placed in cement mixers before they were buried alive.

Those stories seemed incredible until the Nov. 23 massacre of the 57 people, who included the wife and two sisters of Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan, who had sent them to file his certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao in the May elections that Ampatuan’s namesake son and mayor of Datu Unsay coveted.

What was a known brutal and bloody incident involving the Ampatuans happened on Dec. 19, 2003, when the people of Cotabato City saw first-hand what the family was capable of.

Disco scrimmage

It all started inside a disco club in a quarrel between the wife of one of Ampatuan?s sons, Hofer, and a girl friend of the son of a former councilor of Cotabato who was also a retired colonel. A slapping bout between the two women ended in a shootout.

Hofer shot the colonel’s son and the colonel shot Hofer. All the wounded victims were rushed to the same hospital where the Ampatuan family, reportedly led by Datu Zaldy, who would later become ARMM governor, riddled the retired colonel with more than 100 bullets.

Killed in that incident were Hofer, Col. Magno Adalin Sr., his son Jongjong, his nephew Nelson and a girl who was with the Adalins in the disco. Nobody was arrested.

I know Datu Andal personally. He considered me an ally because we were both at odds with the MILF, although for different reasons.

Shortly before the massacre, however, I started receiving reports that Ampatuan felt bad about my comments on the massive corruption and abuses in Maguindanao and the ARMM. In fact, I received a personal call from Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan who told me that President Macapagal-Arroyo had called his attention to the issues of corruption that I raised against the ARMM.

Money and influence

I had personal knowledge of how the senior Ampatuan used his money and influence to run after his enemies.

Shortly after the death of his son Saudi, I met Ampatuan by chance at Century Park Sheraton in Manila. There, he told me that one of the suspects in Saudi’s killing was Zaid Paquiladato, an MILF commander based in the Riverside Area of Midsayap town in North Cotabato, just across the river from Datu Piang town.

Ampatuan offered me P5 million to get Paquiladato. I told him that I will see what I can do. Unknown to him, Paquiladato, who was introduced to me by former Midsayap Mayor Romeo Arana, would often come to see me to ask for help in developing his farm.

Of course, Paquiladato had nothing to do with the killing. His only sin was he ran for mayor of Datu Piang.

Following Saudi’s death, charges of murder were also filed against the vice mayor of Datu Piang, Benny Boy Mokalid. The vice mayor had absolutely nothing to do with the killing, but Ampatuan wanted him out of Datu Piang because under the law of succession, Mokalid would become the mayor.

Mokalid, who left Datu Piang and went into hiding, was later arrested by my policemen in M’lang, North Cotabato, during a routine checkpoint. He was found to be carrying a gun. When Ampatuan heard the arrest, he sent his police provincial commander to pick up Mokalid to be brought to Maguindanao.

Third province proposed

I refused to turn Mokalid over, knowing that he would be killed. I directed the prosecutor’s office to immediately file charges against Mokalid so he would be detained at the provincial jail of North Cotabato. As fate would have it, he was killed while attempting to escape from jail along with other inmates.

In another instance, Ampatuan told me about his plan to create two more provinces out of Maguindanao. One was Shariff Kabunsuan and another province that would include Buluan, Datu Paglas, Pagalungan and Montawal.

Saying the third province did not have enough area, he asked me as governor of North Cotabato if I would agree to yield the town of Pikit to Maguindanao?a proposal which I rejected.

“Bapa (Uncle), the people of Pikit will kill me,” I told him, laughing.

But that was the way power and money transformed Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. from a paramilitary commander to a rich political warlord who shopped in the boutiques of the posh hotels of Las Vegas, still surrounded by a coterie of bodyguards. (To be continued tomorrow.)