The Truth behind the Lights

   

The new street lights along the national highway in Buluan, Maguindanao.

    The rotating brownout hit our town. It suddenly became black. A moment passed, a gunshot was heard. Then, another gunshot and another. The town heard seven gunshots that January night, and it was just the beginning—the cradle of death.

       Buluan is one of the municipalities in the province of Maguindanao. It is dominated by Maguindanaons and there are only few other ethnic groups such as Meranaos and Tausugs in the place. Some of the people are vendors and farmers, and some are fisher folks because of the nearby lake, the Lake Buluan. However, most of Buluan’s population is either unemployed or much unemployed. Majority of the Maguindanaon’s wage is just enough to live by for the day. Education is always not in the “priority list” of most Maguindanaon families, food is. A lechon manok or spaghetti can only be seen during special occasions and Maguindanaons, mind you, are not very fond of special occasions. Our only “special occasions” would be either funeral or graduation. Maybe that is why I can’t blame them if even using the ATM machine would be a difficult task for them. Maybe that is why I can’t blame them if they were tricked by the wives or relatives of Mangudadatu about their 4P’s.

        For nearly 20 years I live in the place, I’m used to the rule of the only ruling family—the Mangudadatus. The family holds almost the high governmental position in Buluan for decade now. Jong Mangudadatu is currently the mayor. He succeeded his older brother, now the Governor of Maguindanao province, Toto Mangudadatu. The Vice Mayor of our town is King Jazher Mangudadatu, the eldest son of Toto Mangudadatu in his first wife and one of the victims of the “Maguindanao Massacre”, Jenalyn Tiamson Mangudadatu. The Assemblyman is Khadaffy Mangudadatu, younger brother of Toto Mangudadatu. The SK Chairman is DJ Fharouk Mangudadatu, the eldest son of Jong Mangudadatu. Esmael Piang, Mayon Salendab, Miskinan Mangudadatu are all councilors and first cousins of the Mangudadatu. To give you a clearer picture, see Figure 1

             Figure 1. The Mangudadatu Clan.

And the list goes on. It would be completely boring and exhaustive to read if I will name them all. This only proved one thing, though,they control Buluan. The power just revolves within their family. They will do any means just to hold, preserve, and extent their power even if this means would take away their own blood.  The range of their power is undeniably much that even the loyalty of the people towards them is altered.

Their authority is undeniably not a charismatic because none of them is the creation of their followers. Maybe their father was, the late Datu Pua Mangudadatu but, certainly, not Toto or Jong or Khadaffy. Their authority is a traditional one. Accordingly, their family belongs to the royal blood. When the decentralization of power was implemented, Maguindanaon societies were already adopting Datuship system. The take-off from Datuship to the new kind of governance was relatively slow. So, the governmental officials came from the “royal bloods”. One reason from the slow take-off from Datuship was that, and still is, no opposition fights the Mangudadatu’s  partly because only few are politicized but mainly because out of fear. Fear that property would be taken away without notice, if notice ever existed in the vocabulary of the Mangudadatu’s. Fear that threats would come along if you expressed anything that against them even though you are right. And, fear that your life would be taken away just like the property, without further notice.

The Mangudadatu’s have loyal people with them that have guns. That is why when Jong Mangudadatu command his loyalists to kill all the drug pushers in January, they did without any hesitation that Human Rights Commission (HRC) would see their act as inhumane. No bothers at all because the mayor says so, and the HRC would never know because the people are afraid. According to all the people I interviewed, there was a list that contains the name of all the people to be killed. It was a long list. When your name was on the list then death was on your side. One of the loyalists of the mayor is the so-called Teng Buwaya—he did most of the job. Interviewee #1 told me that Buwaya would pull out his gun and shot you even you’re in a market. Interviewee #2 told me that one of the supposed victims was in his mom’s house in Bayawa, a ten-minute drive from Buluan. It was middle of the night when someone knocked on their door. The mother asked the man what was his errand. The man said that he needed to talk to her son. At that time, the son was already in deep sleep but he was awakened by his mom, anyway. The mother went to bed, and the two men talked. After several minutes, the mother came back to the living room. She was terrified to see that the two men were already strangling over a gun. Luckily, the son escaped through the cornfield.

Those days Buluan became even more ghost town like as ever. Everyone was uncertain about their family, their friends, and their own life. Everyone was wide awake in a terrible nightmare. Nobody knew who would be the next victim. So the people who were certain that they’re drug pushers went to the mayor to talk, confess, and surrender. Don’t get me wrong. I support the cause of the mayor to eradicate drug pushing. It was, and forever will be, a good cause. What I see wrong was his means to meet his end.

The killing was just stopped when his older brother, Toto, said to stop it because his name will have dirt. And, this will hurt in the gubernatorial race in the May 2013 election. Of course it is always self-interest, isn’t it?

I’m used to the idea that our place—the place I considered home—will be forever stagnant. I’m used to the idea that the people will forever be submissive to the TraPo's. I’m used to the idea that the road in Narra Street that’s older than me will forever be the rough road I knew.  

This is the truth behind the lights.