Akbar: Living with violence

It was a trail of violence and lawlessness that began in the jungles of Basilan and ended with a gruesome death on the steps of the institution where laws are made and where the victim sought refuge from his turbulent past.

A powerful blast left Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar dying on the pavement near the south wing entrance of the Batasang Pambansa building in Quezon City Tuesday night. He died of multiple injuries later that night in a hospital in Fairview.

A driver died instantly in the explosion while a congressional employee expired later in a hospital. Wounded in the attack were Negros Oriental Rep. Henry Teves and Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan.

Muslim leaders across the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and nearby provinces are convinced Akbar was the target of the bomb attack.

It was not clear who or what group carried out the attack because Akbar, in his long, tumultuous years in local politics, had drawn the wrath of many.

Recently, the military blamed his armed followers for the beheading of Marines who died in an encounter with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters in Tipo-Tipo. Akbar denied the accusation.

It’s an open secret in Basilan that Akbar – part Yakan and part Tausug – was one of the founders of the Abu Sayyaf, which gained notoriety for abducting Western tourists and beheading its hostages, particularly Christians.

The group’s original mission was to establish a puritan Islamic caliphate that would unite all Muslim communities in the south.

Akbar, together with Pakistani-trained cleric Abdurajak Janjalani and other militants, reportedly established the Abu Sayyaf on April 4, 1992 during a secret meeting in Upper Kapayawan near Isabela, the capital town of Basilan.

Many of those in the meeting have since been killed in military operations, including Akbar’s “buddy” Edwin Angeles also known as Ibrahim Panduga.

But Akbar’s friends said he distanced himself from the Abu Sayyaf shortly before he ran for governor of Basilan in 1998. Akbar himself denied he was an Abu Sayyaf member.

In a speech at the House two months ago, Akbar had denied any links to the Abu Sayyaf, saying such allegations were “a lie told a thousand times” by the military, police and his political enemies.

He said the Abu Sayyaf violates Islamic teachings by stealing and attacking innocent civilians.

Akbar – who studied Islamic theology in Libya and Syria – reportedly went on the campaign trail in the traditional thoub, a Pakistani-style long white dress with a kupya or small cap on his head.

Akbar, 47, had said he joined his guerrilla father as a teenager in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which later dropped its secessionist goal and signed a peace accord with the government in September 1996. He also became a deputy guerrilla commander of the MILF.

In 2002, as governor of Basilan, he welcomed US troops who arrived on the island to train Filipino soldiers battling the Abu Sayyaf.

Over the years, the island was gradually transformed from a militant hotbed into a showcase of counter-terrorism success and humanitarian development.

Akbar’s popularity soured, however, among his Muslim and Christian constituents when he began to position family members and favored relatives in key government posts. The mayors of Basilan’s four new towns are his relatives.

His wife Jum was elected governor while his other wife Cherrylin is the mayor of Isabela. His third wife ran but lost in the mayoral race in Lamitan.

Akbar, during his three terms as governor, stockpiled high-powered firearms, including M-60 machineguns and shoulder-fire 40 MM grenade launchers.

Akbar’s political adversaries said the beheadings were in retaliation for the confiscation of more than a dozen firearms from his followers by Marines enforcing the election gun ban two months earlier.

But in a July 31 privilege speech, Akbar denied his men’s role in the beheadings and even tagged four men as the ones responsible.

By his death, he gave life to the Yakan saying,“Bang kew ngantan sinapang, peligro matey du kew isab si sinapang,” which roughly translates to the biblical passage, “he who lives by the sword, shall perish by the sword.”

Constituents mourn

Akbar’s provincemates and constituents mourned his passing. “Basilan and the Muslim community in general have just lost a good leader. To all his family and constituents, we convey our deepest condolences. We will not stop until we get to the bottom of this cowardly act. To Allah we came from, to Allah we return,” Rep. Mujiv Hataman of the party-list group Anak Mindanao said as he condemned the “terrorist act that resulted in the death of a brother in Islam.”

In Sumagdang, Basilan, thousands went out to pay their last respects to the slain official.

The remains of Akbar arrived in Zamboanga City on a Philippine Airlines commercial flight from Manila escorted by his four wives and relatives. They were later ferried on a chartered fast craft to Basilan.

The wooden casket draped with a colored green cloth with Arabic inscriptions waded through the multitude before it was brought to an 88-hectare farm some five kilometers from the city proper for burial.

“We are happy that he has fulfilled the Islam life as death is the only means in going to paradise. But we mourn his violent death,” Hadji Darry Jainuddin, brother of Basilan Gov. and Akbar’s widow Jum, said.

“Basilan has lost a great leader, a leader who united Muslims and Christians,” Basilan Provincial Spokesman Cris Puno said.

Puno said Akbar should be credited for wiping out the Abu Sayyaf leadership.

Puno said Akbar had intimated to him that he had never been part of the Abu Sayyaf.

“In his personal talk with me, he honestly said he was neither a leader nor a member of the group. It was sort of mistaken notion because he was then preaching the group that turned out to be the Abu Sayyaf,” Puno said.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections said Congress will have to call for a special election in the province to find Akbar’s replacement.           

“The procedure is that Congress will declare a vacancy in that particular district and within so many days, constitutionally, we have to conduct a special election,” acting chairman Florentino Tuason said. With Jess Diaz, Sheila Crisostomo, Roel Pareño and AP