As early as daybreak, people start to arrive at the public market and the adjacent terminal in Shariff Aguak. They set up makeshift stalls consisting of tables and oversized umbrellas. Some spread mats on the ground for their dry goods. Others use worn-out sacks for their vegetables. Buyers arrive, and soon the place becomes a beehive of commercial activity. It is Monday, market day.
Four years ago, there was none of this sort of bustle in Shariff Aguak, a town in Maguindanao province, stronghold of the Ampatuan clan, whose members were accused of murdering 58 people, including 32 journalists, on Nov. 23, 2009.
Mayor Zahara Ampatuan, whose husband, Anwar, and son Anwar Jr., are jailed while being tried for the massacre, said it was not like this four years ago.
“From a population of 27,000, we were down to 17,000 because people left Shariff Aguak,” Zahara Ampatuan told the Inquirer in an interview in her high-fenced “mansion” just meters away from the public market.
Zahara is serving her second term as mayor, a post her husband held for a few years after elder brother Zaldy Ampatuan, then the mayor, ran and won as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 2005. Anwar was vice mayor to Zaldy.
Still winning elections
Like in other Ampatuan-controlled towns, Ampatuan clan members tried to hold on to power by running in the 2010 elections. Zahara won. So did the wives of Zaldy and Andal Ampatuan Jr., the former Datu Unsay town mayor who allegedly led the group that carried out the killings.
Zaldy’s wife, Jahaira, was elected mayor of Datu Hofer town, while Andal Jr.’s wife, Reshal, is mayor of Datu Unsay.
Aside from the wives, other clan members also won mayoral races—Benzar Ampatuan of Mamasapano town, Sandria Sinsuat-Ampatuan of Shariff Saydona Mustapha and Zamzamin Ampatuan of Rajah Buayan.
But Zahara and Zamzamin are seen as “different” from the other “Ampatuan mayors.” Zamzamin has held several national government posts, the last of which was undersecretary of energy, prior to being elected mayor.
“She’s a performer,” ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said, referring to Zahara. “She’s not there to show that the Ampatuans are still in power. She’s there doing her job as mayor.”
Zahara, however, said bringing people back to Shariff Aguak was not easy. “I had to go to where they evacuated to convince them to return. I also had to provide trucks for them to use when they moved back,” she said.
“But doing that was not enough. I had to show them there was peace here,” she added.
Armed men gone
Gone are the gun-toting men—one thing the Inquirer observed when it visited Shariff Aguak on Monday. Four years ago, armed men, some wearing short pants, were an ordinary sight in the town center. They have either been arrested or in hiding for involvement in the massacre.
Zahara could not say where the armed men had gone. “They’ll be arrested here,” she said.
With Shariff Aguak experiencing relative peace, Zahara said people started to return to the town.
“Now we have a population of more than 27,000,” she said.
In November last year, Zahara organized the Grand Kanduli, with thousands of government soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels gathered for a feast.
“We showed the people that we can do it here—soldiers and rebels in one place, sharing food, sharing the dream for peace,” said Zahara, who claims she supports the preliminary agreement between the government and the MILF for the establishment of an autonomous Bangsamoro homeland in Mindanao.
Zahara’s administration has 907 orphans of MILF rebels as scholars.
Working with others
After the Kanduli, more people came to Shariff Aguak.
As mayor, Zahara has to work with provincial officials, including Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife, sisters and other relatives were among the victims of the Maguindanao massacre.
Mangudadatu has repeatedly said Zahara was one of the “good Ampatuans.” The other is Zamzamin.
“Mayor Zahara is a friend. She goes to me when she needs help for her to deliver government services. We don’t have a problem,” Mangudadatu said.
The feeling is mutual. “The governor is good. I don’t have problems dealing with him,” Zahara said in a separate interview.
For Zahara, she is also a victim. She insists that her husband and son were not involved in the crime.
“The case is already in court. While waiting for the decision, we have to work,” she said.
In July, Mangudadatu and Zahara held a joint medical mission in Shariff Aguak.
“I just could not ignore him. He is my boss,” Sahara said.
Not vindictive
For Hataman, the key to this “cooperation” was Mangudadatu’s not being vindictive.
“He (Mangudadatu) sets aside anger in the name of public service. He has good relations with the good Ampatuans,” Hataman said.
“While the wheels of justice move, Maguindanao has to move on, and that is what Mangudadatu and Mayor Zahara are doing,” he added.
Zahara said she had not visited her husband and son in jail for eight months. “I’m busy here as mayor,” she said.
Mangudadatu said that while the trial grinds, he has to look after his constituents.
“I have to make sure I serve the people of Maguindanao despite what happened,” he said.
Mangudadatu admits that he won the 2010 elections on “sympathy votes.”
In the May elections this year, Mangudadatu was reelected with a margin of more than 100,000 votes over rival Tocao Mastura.
“That (margin) showed that people really want change, and change is what I will give them,” he said.
The governor said he had been talking to businessmen about investing in Maguindanao.
“There are those who want to start banana and oil palm plantations,” he said.
Of the Ampatuan mayors, Mangudadatu said that only Zahara and Zamzamin come to him.
“I don’t know what’s happening with the others,” he said.
Mangudadatu does not go to the “Ampatuan towns” for security reasons. This could also be why residents interviewed by the Inquirer, who all said “life is better now in Shariff Aguak,” refused to be identified.
“There are still Ampatuan loyalists around. They still have their tentacles there,” Mangudadatu said.
The others
Zahara also could not say how government was being managed in the other Ampatuan towns.
The answer, however, was just a kilometer away from Shariff Aguak—the abandoned public market and terminal of Datu Unsay town.
Residents of Datu Unsay have to go to Shariff Aguak to buy their basic needs.
When asked why, Zahara just smiled, apparently not wanting to say anything about the other Ampatuan mayors.
Hataman said some of the other Ampatuan mayors go straight to the regional government for help.
“They also ask for assistance. But this time, they have to follow the proper process,” he said.
“We are functioning as a government, unlike before when everything is centralized—Zaldy ordered what should be done, or where the money should go, or who should hold this and that post,” Hataman said.
Change
Patronage is now gone and the people of Maguindanao are getting used to the change.
But Hataman is hopeful for Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao and the ARMM—all held by the Ampatuans.
He said with him, Mangudadatu and Zahara, “there will be development in five years’ time.”
As for the other Ampatuans, Hataman sees the end of their hold on power.
“In 2010, there were at least 11 of them who were in power. In this year’s elections, only a few won. People are learning to use their votes to get the government that they deserve,” he said.