CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – Newly elected local officials, the provincial chapter of the Liberal Party and members of the business and religious communities want Malacañang to lift the state of emergency on the province.
The entire province has been under state of emergency for almost six months now as a consequence of the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan town by gunmen allegedly led by now detained Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Sr.
“The elections are over and we now have a duly elected governor and vice governor who are not warlords. The investment climate in the province has been badly affected by this state of emergency,” said businessman Antonio Santos, former chairman of the Mindanao Business Council.
Ismael Mangudadatu and Dustin Mastura, Maguindanao’s newly elected governor and vice governor, respectively, both said they will immediately convene the provincial peace and order council to discuss the issue after their assumption to office on June 30.
Santos, a former ranking official of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said incoming President Benigno Aquino III can embark on more comprehensive measures, such as continuing disarmament of private armed groups, regulation of the use by mayors of municipal policemen as their security escorts, and prosecution of people caught possessing unlicensed guns, to hasten political normalcy in the province.
Business organizations in the province and in Cotabato City have noticed a sharp decline in Maguindanao’s investment climate the past six months.
The provincial chairman of the Liberal Party, Hadji Tucao Mastura, who is mayor of Maguindanao’s business capital, Sultan Kudarat town, said there is no danger lifting the state of emergency in Maguindanao since the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and all of its units in the province are now under commanders that are not identified with any political clan.
Mastura said the regional director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, is also not “politically attached” to any powerful politician in Maguindanao.
“The leadership of the 6th ID and the PNP-ARMM exemplified utmost neutrality during the May 10 polls. There is tranquility now in Maguindanao so we have to focus on its economic growth now, after that political storm as a result of the Nov. 23 massacre in Ampatuan municipality,” Mastura said.
Members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, some of them involved in various programs complementing the Mindanao peace process, said there has to be an immediate dialogue among representatives of the business, political and religious sectors to enable Maguindanao’s cross-section to freely discuss their sentiments on the issue.