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A FEW weeks after the Maguindanao massacre, Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, chief administrator of martial law in the area, received an unusual call on his cell phone.

On the other end of the line was a trusted aide of Datu Zaldy Uy Ampatuan, who was days earlier replaced as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Zaldy was one of several members of the Ampatuan clan jailed on charges of rebellion, stemming from the November 23 carnage that left at least 57 people dead.

"Sir, kunin mo na lang, sa iyo na lang daw ang Tavor ni RG (Sir, just get it, RG’s Tavor is yours)," Ferrer recalls the aide as saying. ‘RG’ referred to Regional Governor Zaldy Ampatuan. ‘Tavor’ referred to the Tavor Assault Rifle (TAR-21), the latest and flagship assault rifle produced by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), makers of the legendary Uzi and Galil. Famous for its high-tech, waterproof, and lightweight "bullpup" design, the Tavor comes with a heavyweight price of P500,000.

Actually, it wasn’t clear if the offer was for just one gun. Based on records of the Philippine National Police’s Firearms and Explosives Division (PNP-FED), Zaldy Ampatuan has two Tavors registered in his name.

At the time, government troops were busy raiding the Ampatuan mansions and turning Maguindanao inside out for firearms. Ferrer says that he rejected the offer of a free Tavor outright. "I wasn’t about to take it," he says. "Am I stupid enough to display a Tavor?"

But he says his caller told him, "Okay sir, I will just find a way to get it out of the house."

The incident illustrates the curious yet alarming relationships that the Ampatuans have successfully cultivated with military officers and national officials over the years. More importantly, it shows how Andal Ampatuan Sr., the family patriarch, had successfully parlayed his role as government’s chief ally against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) into a highly influential and profitable political empire that now spans the breadth of Central Mindanao, and how he used the traditional Moro structures of authority and royalty for his own ends.

In the last two decades, the power, presence, and influence of the Ampatuan clan, as well as the fortunes of at least one of its branches, have grown immeasurably, from wielding control of a tiny town in Central Mindanao to the governance of an entire region that includes portions of Southern Mindanao. As of last count, there are 44 elective officials in Maguindanao and the ARMM who answer to the name Ampatuan.
The clan counts as members two recently ousted governors, both sons of Andal Sr.; one vice governor; eight municipal mayors; five vice mayors; three provincial board members; 15 municipal board members; and 10 barangay chairmen. This tally does not yet include other members of the Ampatuan clan who no longer carry the family’s last name because of marriage, or officials who were appointed to their positions.

This is not to say the Ampatuans were virtual unknowns before Andal Sr. was elected Maganoy mayor in 1988. Moro scholar Jamal Ashley Abbas says the Ampatuans were already a prominent clan during the last century, even during the colonial era. "The Ampatuans are a datu (clan)," he says. "I think they became prominent during the American period, during the fall of the sultanates of Maguindanao and Buayan."

A succession of Ampatuans reportedly ruled Maganoy, the old name of the present capital town of Shariff Aguak.

Ilaga vs pusa

The Ampatuans also played a significant role in the bloody 1970 conflict between the government and Moro rebels. Abbas recalls that when the armed Christian settlers formed the ‘Ilaga’— "rat"in Bisaya – group, Moro families formed their own armed group called ‘Pusa,’ or "cat." Pusa was an acronym for the major clans that took part in the fighting: the Pendatuns, the Sinsuats, and the Ampatuans.

Andal Sr. is known to have fought Moro rebels during the latter part of the Marcos regime as a local militia leader in Maganoy. But it is unclear if he was fighting the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) at that time, or the breakaway MILF, although the latter is now his arch nemesis.

What no one questions is that over the years, Andal Sr. worked his way into the local system, ingratiating himself with military and police officials. Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy professor Michael Mastura, who belongs to one of Maguindanao’s major clans, says Andal Sr. even had a stint in the local jail, first as an inmate, then later either as a jailer or a warden.

In both roles, Andal Sr. was infamous for his frontier-style brutality, says Mastura. He also comments, "He was a product of his time, a throwback to the Moro days of banditry."

Yet although he won his first major local position in the first post-EDSA election, Andal Sr. remained under the national political radar until his election as Maguindanao governor in 2001. Taking his place as Shariff Aguak mayor was his son Zaldy. By 2009, the Ampatuans held Maguindanao and the rest of ARMM in a firm grip.

Natural ally

At first, Ampatuan’s main card was his fight with the MILF, and it was a card he played well. Successive administrations had counted on local government officials to beef up government troops in conflict areas with local militias. The somewhat hazy arrangement was legitimized when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Executive Order 546 in 2006, allowing local officials and the PNP to deputize barangay tanods and volunteers as force multipliers. Overnight, the private armies that the government was supposed to hunt down were transformed into comrades-at-arms, armed and supplied by state arsenals.

As overlord of Maguindanao, Andal Sr. virtually controlled the province’s main highway, from Ampatuan town in the south to Cotabato City in the north, with an army of at least 2,000 fully armed civilian volunteer organization (CVO) members, by Ferrer’s own estimate. Except for a few army and CAFGU checkpoints, almost every armed man along the highway owed his loyalty to an Ampatuan.

"He became a natural ally against the MILF," says Ferrer. "He has CVOs as the outer perimeter of our security area. The AFP secures the highways and the population centers, but we had no forces for the outskirts, so he provided the answer."

"The government needed someone who could be a Muslim to confront the MILF," explains Mus Lidasan, president of Konsult Mindanaw, a grassroots group assisting in the peace talks between the government and the MILF. "That’s how (the Ampatuans) became allies (of the government). That’s the root of their power."

It was a role the military appreciated deeply, and which made up for whatever shortcomings or excesses the Ampatuans would exhibit for all officialdom to see. The Ampatuan army would often do battle with men of MILF 105th base command leader Umbra Kato and other MILF commanders to the point where it was almost beginning to look like a rido, or a bitter clan war. In fact, Ferrer says that he now hesitates to completely disarm all CVOs in Maguindanao, as earlier reported, because this would put many of them in danger of retaliation from the MILF.

The Ampatuans, however, were not content with flexing their military muscle in front of acquiescent military officers. They also became adept at playing the political game, courting local military commanders with expensive gifts, while at the same time reminding them that the clan had the power to have them removed on a whim.

Ferrer recalls how, when he was still 6th Infantry Division commander, a position that gave him control of all of Central Mindanao, Andal Sr. would send him frequent and persistent requests for ammunition. The military official says he tried to dodge the requests; he preferred replenishing the Ampatuans’ ammunition stocks only after these were diminished by fighting, fearing the clan was getting too powerful.

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