Maguindanao governor orders disarming of private armies

COTABATO CITY, Philippines –  Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu yesterday ordered the new provincial police director to continue disarming private armies and arrest all other suspects in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan town who are still at large.

Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac, who took over as Maguindanao’s police director on Friday, was the former director of the Gen. Santos City police. Pintac replaced Superintendent Alex Lineses, who is to assume office as intelligence director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police.

“He must do his best to restore normalcy in the province, arrest offenders and prevent commission of crimes,” Mangudadatu said, referring to Pintac.

There are dozens of families in Maguindanao that are locked in rido (clan war), some of them decades-old blood feuds. The province is also a known hotbed of Islamic militancy and host to more than 20 enclaves of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“Peace and order in the province is very important. We need to have an investment climate that will help lure in investors,” Mangudadatu said.

Lineses, who played a key role in enforcing the state of emergency in the entire province and in the recovery of hundreds of firearms owned by the Ampatuans voluntarily vacated his post on Tuesday due to “differences” with Mangudadatu.

Sources from the Maguindanao provincial government said Mangudadatu have asked for the relief of Lineses due to his lackluster performance in recent weeks.

Mangudadatu asked for the relief of Lineses in his inaugural speech after he took his oath as the new provincial governor on June 30 in Buluan, Maguindanao.

Lineses was Maguindanao’s police director while the province was all together under martial law, from early December 2009 to January this year, and under state of emergency, while the campaign period was on.

“I consider that experience a very colorful chapter of my career as a police officer,” Lineses said.