Politicians predict revival of Sulu’s ‘Magic 8’

COTABATO CITY — Political leaders in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) perceived the assumption into office of Sulu Gov. Benjamin Loong as the rebirth of the legendary "Magic Eight," a once influential group of big Tausog clans in eight vote-rich towns in the perennially politically-turbulent province.

Loong hails from Parang, one of the eight towns that once composed what was then the "political kingdom" of the Magic Eight, which his elder brother, Tupay, Sulu’s former provincial governor, helped establish in the early ’70s.

Leaders in Sulu are certain that the Magic Eight’s once "formidable stature" will again emerge and be felt during the ARMM’s forthcoming November elections.

Sulu has 18 towns, about half of which were too poor that most do not even have electricity and water systems.

The pioneer members of the Magic Eight were all rebel leaders who were appointed as mayors of their respective towns by former President Ferdinand Marcos when they all returned to the fold of law and pledged support to the government’s pacification campaign in Sulu, scene of the fiercest Moro uprisings in the country’s contemporary history.

The Magic Eight started to gain popularity in 1974 when the elder Loong, then vice governor of the province, assumed the gubernatorial post following the demise of Gov. Mus Ezquierdo.

The popularity of the Magic Eight started to wane after former Sulu Rep. Sakur Tan, defeated Tupay (Loong) in the 1995 gubernatorial race in the province.

Sources close to Loong, however, said it would be unlikely for the newly elected governor, now a successful agricultural entrepreneur, to revive the Magic Eight.

"As a new kind of politician and as a trader who has strong linkages with equally prominent merchants in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore, Gov. Loong will go for a political block that has a strong vision of genuine peace and sustainable development," said a former undersecretary of ARMM.

Loong, during the campaign period, promised to introduce reforms, through extensive multi-sectoral dialogues and consensus-building, to empower Sulu’s marginalized fisherfolk and farming communities, whose towns are not only impoverished, but are hotbeds of Islamic fundamentalism.