How will ARMM execs discharge duties, info chief asks

DAVAO CITY – Public officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) have not discharged of their routinary duties as
government officials since the time government placed two provinces
and one city in Central Mindanao under a state of emergency, posting
military security in the houses of the Ampatuans, whose members hold
key positions in the local government and one of them detained as the
prime suspect in killing of not less than 57 persons.

Samson Gogo, executive director of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public
Information, told BusinessMirror on December 3 that the
military has disallowed ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan from leaving his
residence in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao since that week in late
November that the Army placed this province, along with Sultan Kudarat
and Cotabato City in a state of emergency.

“The governor has been restricted to move around and has just stayed
in his residence since then, and this is our dilemma on how to
discharge our functions as officials of the ARMM,” he said, when
contacted through his mobile phone from the Ampatuan residence.

He said that that the problem was compounded by the restriction
imposed also on other ARMM officials from visiting the governor in his
residence. “The governor can not talk with them, the officials can not
confer on the governor on how to discharge their duties,” he said.

Gogo declined to say if the governor has received any subpoena from
the special panel of prosecutors formed by the Department of Justice,
which issued a resolution on November 27 to issue a subpoena against
the other Ampatuans.

Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of the town of Datu Unsay, has been detained
in the national office of the National Bureau of Investigation to face
several counts of murder charges as the prime suspect in the November
23 killing of members of political rival Mangudadatu clan, mostly
women, two lawyers and 31 journalists.

On November 27, the subpoena would be issued to the mayor's
father, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., the clan’s patriarch and the
incumbent Maguindanao governor, the mayor’s brothers Datu Zaldy, and
Sajid Islam, the ARMM vice governor; the mayor’s first cousins Nords
and Akmad; his brother in law and second cousin Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan,
Sr., and Tato's sons Saudi Jr. and Bahnarin.

The Davao City-based online news agency, Mindanews, in its November 30
dispatch datelined Cotabato City, said that the respondents would be
asked “to submit their respective counter-affidavits and controverting
evidence”.

“That’s for the lawyers of the governor [Zaldy] to say because it’s a
legal matter,” he said. He also declined to comment on the health
situation of the ARMM governor beyond saying that the latter appeared
hale and healthy.

He cut short his conversation with BusinessMirror saying he would not
comment anymore. He confirmed that he was in the Ampatuan residence
too, and has been also restricted. He would not say if the other ARMM
officials were placed on similar terms of restriction.

He said he could not understand “why we are restricted”.

The MindaNews dispatch also said that similar restriction was imposed
on the Ampatuan patriarch.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has declared a state of emergency in
the two provinces and Cotabato City only a few days after the killings
to avoid the tension from worsening into a clan vendetta killing,
locally called rido. The Ampatuans were known to reign over
Maguindanao and the Mangudadatus, the neighboring province of Sultan
Kudarat.