Three years after

Since the massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao in 2009, how much has changed?

Ampatuan clan patriarch Andal Sr. and his sons Andal Jr. and Zaldy are being held without bail, but Zaldy has not been arraigned. The Quezon City regional trial court is waiting for decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals on motions filed by several of the accused.

Esmael Mangudadatu, whose wife, sister, other relatives and aides were among those killed in the massacre, has taken over part of the old Ampatuan fiefdom in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

But the dynasty is surviving: Andal Jr.’s wife Reshal is seeking re-election in 2013 as mayor of Datu Unsay where he used to be mayor, and Zaldy’s wife Johaira is seeking a second term as mayor of Datu Hoffer town. Both are candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay. Other Ampatuans are running under President Aquino’s Liberal Party.

Since the massacre, efforts to build political dynasties across the country have not diminished. In fact, for the 2013 elections, the efforts are reaching atrociously shameless levels, from the Senate race down to the lowest positions at stake. Don’t vote for them, the candidates say; you can’t shame the shameless.

In the ARMM and many other parts of the country, the Aquino administration has not made a significant dent so far in the poverty and lack of education that make people vote for whoever can give them regular dole-outs. The conditional cash transfer is threatening patronage politics, but not enough to affect voting patterns. Members of political dynasties know this.

Of 196 people implicated in the massacre, only 98 have been arrested and 81 arraigned, with 57 seeking bail including Andal Sr. and his sons. One of the accused, Police Officer 2 Hernanie Decipulo Jr., jumped to his death from the roof of the Quezon City jail annex at Camp Bagong Diwa.

The government failed to keep track of illegal wealth accumulation when the Ampatuans were in power. Now it is failing to keep track of the clan’s assets that the victims’ families want the state to confiscate.

According to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Ampatuans own 500 hectares in Maguindanao and apparently managed to transfer ownership of eight of their properties to their lawyer, shortly before the government moved to freeze the assets.

After the massacre, the nation saw mansions and a large fleet of luxury vehicles owned by the clan in the ARMM, one of the poorest regions in the country, and in Dasmariñas Village in Makati.

But the wealth accumulation by public officials with modest salaries was hardly shocking. Elsewhere in the country, other political clans continue to enrich themselves, legally and illegally, with hardly anyone paying attention. The massacre did not end this.

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Is the ARMM safer, three years after the massacre?

Witnesses, including potential ones, have been murdered. At least no one has again killed 58 people in a turkey shoot and tossed them with a backhoe, together with their cars, in a shallow grave. But the region is still awash with loose firearms, as in many other parts of the country, ready for use in the approaching elections.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is pursuing peace, although it must deal with its violent splinter group. The Ampatuans used to be the government’s SOBs; they were supposed to have been efficient in keeping the MILF in check, with Andal Jr.’s brutality in dealing with the secessionists the stuff of legend.

Supposedly because of this role of the clan, the Arroyo administration looked the other way as the Ampatuans built up their arsenal using government resources and turned police, military and militia members – the so-called force multipliers – into their private army. Up to 300 members of this army are believed to have participated in the massacre.

The force multipliers are still in place. President Aquino, apparently listening to his security officers, has said the militias are still needed in many areas where police and military presence is wanting.

The current administration also puts up with SOBs who tend to keep the peace in their respective jurisdictions. These SOBs may not be murdering troublemakers (including political rivals) and burying the corpses in bucolic sites, but they are involved in illegal activities including smuggling and gambling.

The other reason the Arroyo administration supposedly put up with the Ampatuans, although this has yet to be established in court, was that the clan always delivered the votes. Maguindanao is notorious not only for the massacre but also for vote-rigging.

Has our voting system improved since 2009? The 2010 automated vote was a great improvement, especially in the presidential race, although senators insisted on their right to conduct the longest vote canvassing in the world. That glacial pace is something even stem cell therapy can’t remedy.

With cases filed in connection with vote rigging and the massacre moving at their usual leisurely pace, the culture of impunity remains.

The circumstances that led to the nation’s worst case of election violence are still in place. This ensures that the mass killing can happen again, though perhaps in a less heinous degree.

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GIVING THANKS: We’re not familiar with the story of America’s pilgrims and we prefer lechon manok to turkey, but leave it to Pinoys to start marketing American Thanksgiving as a special day for celebration in the Philippines. And the tradition just might take root, if we consider the way Halloween as well as Mother’s, Father’s and Grandparents’ Days have caught on.