Another man surnamed Ampatuan has been arrested in connection with the Maguindanao massacre, according to reports yesterday. The clan responsible for the single worst atrocity in this country in recent memory is so large law enforcement authorities could not verify immediately how arrested suspect Manny Ampatuan is related to the principal accused in the massacre, Andal Ampatuan Jr.
At the height of their power, the clan occupied every major local government position in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, one of the poorest regions in the country. Towns were created and named after clan members. Protecting the Ampatuans and their vast assets became the principal source of livelihood for many ARMM residents; they constituted the clan’s private army. Clan members freely dispensed patronage and bought loyalty. Where that was not possible, they brutally crushed opposition to their rule.
A 96-page report prepared by Human Rights Watch linked the Ampatuans’ security forces to 52 cases of disappearances, kidnapping, sexual assault, and executions apart from the Maguindanao massacre. The Ampatuans’ notoriety was no big secret. But the clan could guarantee election outcomes by calling on debts of gratitude or sheer intimidation. Its iron grip also kept lawless elements and secessionist Muslims at bay. With that kind of control over the local populace, the Ampatuans’ support was courted by public officials occupying higher office, thereby perpetuating the power of the clan.
That power base has not been fully dismantled a year after the Maguindanao massacre, even with the incarceration of key Ampatuan clan members led by patriarch Andal Senior. Human Rights Watch said victims of the many atrocities attributed to the clan and its security forces are still waiting for justice, and there is no assurance that they will get it. The five-month-old administration headed by the only son of two democracy icons should do something to change this sorry state of affairs in the fiefdom of the Ampatuans.