Samsudin Dimaukom: The mayor who loved pink

COLOR OF LOVE Samsudin Dimaukom, mayor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, in a pink shirt with his pink Hummer and the pink mosque in the background. It痴 the color of love and peace, he said. RAFFY LERMA

Samsudin Dimaukom had been mayor of Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province since 2013.

He entered politics when he was appointed vice governor by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu in 2012.

Dimaukom, who was admired for keeping peace in the town, was also known for his fondness for the color pink. He built a mosque in the town and painted it pink, and he had the municipal hall repainted pink.

Dimaukom’s house is also pink, and he owned a pink Hummer.

For his love of pink, Dumaukom became known as the Pink Mayor.

“Pink is the color of love and peace,” said Dimaukom, a self-made millionaire. “That’s what’s needed in a region wracked by a decades-long Moro insurgency.”

In August, President Duterte publicly linked Dimaukom and more than 150 former and current government officials and policemen to illegal drugs.

Dimaukom denied the accusation. “Not once were we involved in drugs. In fact, we were fighting drugs. I support the President’s drug war,” he told the New York Times in an e-mail interview. —INQUIRER RESEARCH

Source: Inquirer Archives