COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Secretary Armin Luistro and Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu agreed to convert into a public school the P120-million capitol building the Ampatuan clan built in Shariff Aguak town in 2006 while still at the helm of Maguindanao’s political leadership.
Mothballed since after the 2010 local elections, and once an icon of the political impunity of the Ampatuans, the three-storey building, with a 6,000-square meter floor area, sits on a fenced six-hectare land where more school buildings can be constructed too, depending on availability of funds.
Luistro gave Mangudadatu his nod of approval after the governor, who was first elected Maguindanao chief executive on May 2010, verbally proposed to the former the building’s conversion into a public school during a break in Friday night’s opening session of an international peace conference at the gymnasium of the Notre Dame University here.
Luistro and Mangudadatu, chair of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council, were among dozens of high-profile guests to the symbolic launching of the two-day confab, organized by Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, and assisted by foreign entities involved in the peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“There is no better way of putting that huge building, very expensive building, into good use than converting it into a public school,†Mangudadatu told Luistro, in the presence of reporters.
Luistro said he is in favor of Mangudadatu’s plan and promised to exhaust his authority in helping push the project forward, in coordination with the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Luistro said the conversion of the capitol building in Shariff Aguak, hometown of the Ampatuans, will help address the problem on shortage of classrooms.
Mangudadatu said he will inform the DepEd-ARMM and the governor of the autonomous region, Mujiv Hataman, about the consensus he and Luistro had reached.
Luistro and Mangudadatu have also agreed to tap lawyers who can study the viability and legal ramifications of their plan.
The governor said he will request the presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Maguindanao Vice Gov. Lester Sinsuat, and Board Member Bobby Katambak, a practicing lawyer, to determine the most appropriate process on how to proceed with the project, without being hampered by legal impediments.
Mangudadatu and his subordinates in all divisions under the governor’s office have never occupied the capitol since he was first elected to office in 2010 due to security reasons, and its being too far away from centers of commerce and trade.
The capitol in Shariff Aguak is being used as temporary command headquarters of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade just to prevent looters and vandals from breaking in.