Andal Ampatuan Sr., patriarch of the Ampatuan clan of Maguindanao and one of the principal accused in the deaths of 58 people in 2009 in the worst case of election-related violence in Philippine history, died on Friday, July 17.
Andal Ampatuan Sr., in this file photo, is wheeled out of Pasay Regional Trial Court after an electoral sabotage hearing in 2012. He pleaded not guilty to the charges he has been accused of together with ex-Pres. Gloria Arroyo, ex-Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos, and election supervisor Lintang Bedol. Danny Pata
Ampatuan, former governor of Maguindanao province, was vice mayor of Maganoy town — now called Shariff Aguak — before the People Power revolution of 1986.
Malacañang appointed him acting mayor of the town after the revolution.
Journalist Ellen Tordesillas wrote shortly after the 2009 massacre that "from then on, Andal Sr. never looked back." In the 1988 elections, Andal Sr. was elected as mayor and, Tordesillas writes, "was also charged for the murder of his poll rival, Surab Abutasil."
From 1988 to 1998, the Ampatuan patriarch served as mayor before running, and winning as governor of Maguindanao province. In the meantime, other members of the clan ran for, and were elected to, various local posts.
It was in 2001, after another event on EDSA ended the administration of another president, that Ampatuan and his clan further solidified their hold on the province.
According to a Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism report published in 2008, the clan managed to do so by maintaining a huge armed group and by maintaining close ties with Malacañang.
"To some political analysts, it is easy to explain why the Ampatuans command solid hold on Maguindanao: The clan enjoys close ties with the Palace in faraway Manila, simply because the clan has managed to deliver the votes for administration candidates," PCIJ reported then.
Citing a report by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, the PCIJ report said the Ampatuans helped then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo "ensure her influence over the whole of Mindanao."
With around 200 armed men in its civilian volunteer organization — private armed groups authorized by executive order — the clan also "support[ed] the internal security requirement of the capitol or the municipio" while also discouraging dissent and opposition, the report said.
That opposition included the Mangudadatu clan, former political allies of the Ampatuans, who decided to field Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu in the 2010 gubernatorial elections.
On November 23, 2009, a convoy carrying journalists, lawyers, and relatives — including Vice Mayor Mangudadatu's wife and his sister — headed to the Commission on Elections office in Shariff Aguak to formalize his candidacy for governor.
The convoy did not reach town.
Andal Sr., sons Andal "Unsay" Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy, and more than 100 others have since been charged with murder in connection with the massacre, where 58 people, including more than 30 journalists, were killed.
He had also been charged with electoral sabotage for allegedly manipulating elections for the Arroyo administration.
Arroyo allegedly instructed him over the phone to deliver a 12-0 victory for senatorial bets of the administration in the 2007 elections.
His co-accused included former President Arroyo and former poll chairman Benjamin Abalos. —KG, GMA News
