Maguindanao execs on drug list lose security escorts

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Life for the eight politicians in the province President Rodrigo Duterte implicated in drug trafficking activities became difficult overnight, a predicament they never thought would come their way.

The first serious constraint they needed to face was the absence of police and Army escorts, which can scale down their mobility, owing to their deep-seated animosity with rivals in their respective towns.

Mayors Rasul Sangki of Ampatuan, Montasir Sabal of Talitay, Vicman Montawal of Montawal, Samsudin Dimaukum of Datu Saudi, Norodin Salasal of Salibo, and Vice-Mayors Abdulwahab Sabal of Talitay, Otto Montawal of Montawal, and Anida Dimaukom of Datu Saudi, yielded on Sunday to Senior Superintendent Nikson Muksan, director of the Maguindanao provincial police.

As expected, all of them denied involvement in drug trafficking activities, blaming adversarial political camps for their names on Malacañang's initial list of people allegedly involved in large-scale narcotics trade.

Duterte announced Sunday the names of the people on the lists, among them local executives in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both component provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. 

The president also immediately ordered the police and military escorts of the local officials to return to their units and warned of corresponding punishment if they refuse.

All of the five Maguindanao mayors and three vice mayors the president tagged as involved in narcotics business are locked in deadly clan wars.

Sabal, now on his third and last term as mayor of Talitay, had earlier denied the allegation that he is a drug lord.

He had also confessed to his having been involved in the drug trade while a policeman, but emphasized that he turned around and reformed himself when he joined politics and became mayor of Talitay town.

The clan of Sabal and its adversary, the Buisan family of Talitay, figured in deadly gunfights shortly after the May 9 elections.

Muksan and the Army's 6th Infantry Division in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao on Monday separately confirmed that the police and military security men assigned to the eight local officials had returned to their units bringing with them their service firearms.

"We cannot defy the order of the president," Muksan said.

Politicians in all of ARMM's five component provinces are known for their strong tradition of displaying heavily-armed security escorts when they move around, both as protection from adversaries and as status symbol.

The president, as punitive action, also canceled the licenses of the personal firearms of the eight ethnic Maguindanaon politicians, "iconic luggage" they cannot easily part away with.

Residents of ARMM fear local leaders for their guns and their private armies.

It is a common knowledge among residents of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and in the ARMM's three other provinces, the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, that politicians rely on guns to perpetuate political power.

"Change has come. This is something new. The president really means business," said an ethnic Maguindanaon cleric who is a senior member of central Mindanao's Darul Iftah, also known as Islamic House of Opinions.