A Two-Part Special Report on Transparency and Accountability in Maguindanao
By Carolyn O. Arguillas in Buluan, Maguindanao

Monday, 18 October 2010

(Part 1)

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu in his first State of the Province Address in Filipino: "We want to change this negative image of Maguindanao...There is nothing impossible if we help each other." KEITH BACONGCO/MindaNews

Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Gaguil Mangudadatu lives in a two-storey house here that relatives refer to as the “White House.”

The “White House” pales in comparison to the pink and peach mansions of the former Maguindanao governor, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and his children in Shariff Aguak but in a town like Buluan, where the Mangudadatus reign supreme, it stands out like the Ampatuan mansions -- a symbol of wealth and power amid poverty and powerlessness.

When Mangudadatu and Vice Governor Datu Ismael “Dustin” Veloso Mastura took their oath of offices shortly before noon of June 30 at the municipal stage here, they did not categorically say they would be the “complete opposite” of their predecessors, particularly the controversial Ampatuan clan, but they promised as much.

In a speech delivered in English – a choice apparently intended more for those outside rather than inside Maguindanao -- the new leadership promised “Totoong Pagbabago Para sa Maguindanaon” (Genuine Change for the Maguindanaon) through what the governor described as “consultative, participative and collective governance and transparent and accountable administrative policies without any form of oppression and violence.”

“We are not your masters but your servants,” Mangudadatu said in his 29-minute speech, one minute of that he asked for silence, to offer prayers for his wife, Genalin, two sisters and 55 others , 32 of them from the media, who were “martyred” on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, while they were en route to the provincial elections office in Shariff Aguak, to file Mangudadatu’s certificate of candidacy for governor.

“Only non-violence can achieve a moral purpose without compromising it, especially if the purpose is Peace. It cuts through its objectives with the precision of a surgical knife, neatly excising the cancer form our body politic without damage to the surrounding tissue. The healing comes faster,” the then 41-year old governor said.

“Help us make a new chapter in Maguindanao history,” said the then 39-year old Mastura. A hundred days later, on the same stage, Mangudadatu delivered his State of the Province Address (SOPA), this time in Pilipino, a language majority of his constituents understand.

He spoke about the negative image of his province as the country’s third poorest province, battleground of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Moro Islamic Liberation Front and home to what he said was the province with the highest number of internally displaced persons in Asia, and how, “sa kasamaang palad, sa tuwing nababanggit po ang Maguindanao, ang nasabing massacre ang agad na pumapasok sa isipan ng mga tao” (unfortunately, each time Maguindanao is mentioned, people immediately think of that massacre).

“Nais po nating baguhin ang negatibong imahe na ito ng Maguindanao. Kailanganin po natin ng panahon upang bumangon mula dito. Wala pong imposible kung tayo ay magtutulungan, kapitbisig isulong ang kapayapaan tungo sa malusog na Maguindanao” (We want to change this negative image of Maguindanao. We need time to rise from this. There is nothing impossible if we help each other. Together, let’s work for peace towards a vibrant Maguindanao), he said on his 100th day in office last Sunday, October 10.

Maguindanao’s negative image, however, was also brought about by its leaders, particularly the Ampatuans. And changing that negative image requires not only a change in leadership but also in setting positive examples.

While the Ampatuan administration was characterized by a convoy of vehicles, mostly SUVs and heavily armed men, military/police escorts, so is Mangudadatu’s though on a smaller scale and without sirens blaring (because “wang-wangs” have been banned under the Aquino administration).

Security was a major concern of three-term governor Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. Security is also a major concern of Mangudadatu, a long-time ally of the Ampatuans until he announced his plan to run for governor.

At the Peace Summit of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) last month, Mangudadatu arrived at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center in Cotabato City on board a dark bluish gray Toyota Sequoia Platinum SUV, and a convoy of about 11 vehicles, among them two Army trucks.

“I doubled my security,” he told us, explaining the death threats against him.

The threats have not stopped.

Nearly 11 months after the massacre, the province remains under a state of emergency, with a brief period under martial law in December.

“Even mayors require escorts. There are assassination plots against me. If I have no escorts, they may just kill me,” he told us

When he was proclaimed winner in the electoral race on May 14, Mangudadatu arrived at the Provincial Capitol in Shariff Aguak, on board a Simba tank, escorted by a military convoy.

As early as then, he had vowed not to hold office in Shariff Aguak, the Ampatuans’ bailiwick, preferring instead to stay in his hometown in Buluan. Several Maguindanao residents believe the governor has transferred the provincial seat to his hometown here, prompting jokes that perhaps the capitol should be in the form of some kind of bus, like a mobile hospital, so it can be moved where the new governor wants it.

The provincial government recognized Buluan, the bailiwick of the Mangudadatus, as the satellite office of the governor "for securiity reasons" as a result of the November 23, 2009 massacre. KEITH BACONGCO/MindaNews

Today, Maguindanao is the only province in the country where its elected governor and vice governor hold offices “temporarily” in municipal buildings located over 100 kilometers away in Buluan and Sultan Kudarat respectively.

Two former local government seats in Maguindanao both stand abandoned -the old capitol along the Davao-Cotabato highway in Nuling, Sultan Kudarat which Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. deserted in 2001, a few months after he became governor, following an alleged ambush attempt against him and the new PhP 218-million (USD 5 million) provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak - the only capitol in the country that came with a jacuzzi whirlpool bath in the governor’s wing.

“Hindi ako pwede mag opisina doon. Hindi sa takot ako. Ayoko nang gulo. Kasi magkakagulo kami kung magho-hold ako ng office doon. Pangalawa, baka bombahin nang bombahin ang mga opisina doon. Wala tayong hinahanap kundi away,” (I can’t hold office there. It’s not that I’m afraid. I don’t want trouble. There will be trouble if we hold office there. Second, the offices there might just be bombed. We’ll end up with more trouble),” Mangudadatu said of the captiol in Shariff Aguak.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan in fact passed Resolution 005 “recognizing [Buluan as] the satellite office” of the governor “for security reasons due to the prevailing armed sightings and other related threats” as a result of the November 23, 2009 massacre.

Earlier, both Mangudadatu and Vice Governor Ismael Mastura spoke about rehabilitating the old provincial capitol in Nuling, Sultan Kudrat, but no repair work has started. In fact, no budget has been allocated for its rehabilitation.

Mangudadatu said they will likely begin repairs in the old capitol in January 2011 and estimates the cost at around PhP 50 million (USD 1.1 million).

“Hopefully next year,” he added.

His administration ends at noon on June 30, 2013.

Meanwhile, employees living in Cotabato City – most live there –have to spend a lot of time and money commuting to Buluan. The province-owned bus goes to Buluan from Cotabato on Mondays and leaves Buluan for Cotabato on Fridays.

Some employees have had to find boarding houses in Buluan. While employees faced the exact same problem under Ampatuan, Buluan is twice the distance away from Cotabato than Shariff Aguak where they were previously forced to work.

Problems brought about by location changes of the capitol, however, are but a few of the problems confronting the Mangudadatu-Mastura team.

Setting up governance structures in an area where clan politics hold sway, is among the problems of any post-Ampatuan administration but Mangudadatu, as early as the day after his proclamation as Governor-Elect, said: “You know, it’s so easy. First, government funds are not for me but for the community. My program is to have more scholarships for deserving students. We can even overhaul this that way…Within the first 100 days, we should be able to buy a mobile hospital so that the people will not look for the hospital but the hospital will look for the people. The people here, they cannot even buy Cortal, Medicol.”

Until the November 23, 2009 massacre which effectively signaled the end of the reign of the Ampatuan’s in Maguindanao, the country’s third poorest province had at least PhP 80 million (USD 1.8 million) every month as its Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). Yet there was hardly a semblance of governance and delivery of basic services in the area whose leaders were known to be allies of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The then president even gave PhP 50 million (USD 1.1 million) out of her Social Fund to help pay for the then new provincial capital building at Shariff Aguak.

Accountability for the expenditure of public funds had always been a problem in the province. After the massacre, however, a special audit of Maguindanao’s funds was ordered and while it was completed by the team from the Commission on Audit sometime in January 2010 it has yet to be made public.

Even Mangudadatu says he has yet to see a copy of it.

Today despite the IRA, the governor says they have loans left behind by the Ampatuan administration to pay. Asked how much debt the Ampatuans left behind, Mangudadatu said “in the hundreds of millions.”

While unable to confirm to us last week how much of the monthly IRA allocation goes to pay off the Ampatuan debts he promised he will check on the exact figures.

Accountability for public funds is among the many issues the Mangudadatu-Mastura team has to address in the post-Ampatuan era, given that all eyes are on Maguindanao.

The constituents’ view of the provincial government as an employment agency and how the province responds to this is yet another.

One early Friday afternoon in August, Ramadan fasting notwithstanding, hundreds of Maguindanaoans gathered in whatever available space there was in the office -most of them carrying folders. They were job-seekers queuing for the Governor’s signature that would provide them for a job – if only for a month.

It is said to be a daily routine when the governor is in town. Mangudadatu says he passes the files on to the Personnel Selection Board. “For example, if I see that she/he is a graduate of nursing and he/she can be assigned to the district or mobile hospital, I put a marginal note “October for October Job order so that when October comes, I will remove some, and they will take over.”

“You give people the chance to work,” he told us. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project/MindaNews

(The author writes for MindaNews, one of four partners that together comprise the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP). This story is a joint PPTRP/MindaNews initiative.)

Click here to read Part 2 of the story.