Ampatuan clan feud triggers tension in Maguindanao del Sur

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao del Sur — The mayor of this town is optimistic that he could secure justice for the six ambushes targeting him over the years, including the rocket attack on his convoy early this year, which he blamed on his relatives in the Ampatuan clan.

Shariff Aguak Mayor Akmad Ampatuan, Sr. told a group of reporters during a dialogue at his office here on Monday, September 28, that it would be better for his nephew, Mayor Andal Ampatuan V of Datu Unsay town, and 11 others charged with violating the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and multiple counts of frustrated murder for their alleged involvement in the ambush of his convoy on January 25 to surrender now and face judicial proceedings.

All of them are now reportedly at large, said to have fled after a court in Iligan City in Region 10 issued warrants for their arrest last week.

The town centers of the adjoining Shariff Aguak and Datu Unsay, both in Maguindanao del Sur, are only about a kilometer away from each other.

“Me and my relatives and supporters have agreed to leave everything to the court. We have no plan to retaliate for that rocket attack that hit my vehicle and slightly hurt me and my companions,” Akmad told reporters on Monday.

Akmad and his companions were riding in a bulletproof sports utility vehicle when gunmen, one of them armed with a B40 anti-tank rocket launcher, attacked them at one spot in the town center of Shariff Aguak.

The rocket blast damaged one side of Akmad’s vehicle. He and his escorts sustained contusions and wounds on different parts of their bodies as a result of the rocket explosion.

“It’s better for my nephew and his alleged accomplices in that ambush to surrender now. There is now a warrant of arrest from a court in Iligan City where the criminal cases against them were filed with the help of the Department of Justice,” Akmad said, referring to the Regional Trial Court Branch 1 in Iligan City.

The RTC Branch 1 in Iligan City is one of several courts in the country exclusively litigating violations of the state anti-terror law.

Akmad said many of his close relatives in the Ampatuan clan are hostile to him for having testified against its former leader, Andal Ampatuan, Sr., who had served as a three-term governor of the still-undivided Maguindanao, and his son, Andal Ampatuan, Jr., better known as "Datu Unsay," during their prosecution for their involvement in the November 23, 2009, politically motivated murder of 58 individuals, more than 30 of them journalists, in Ampatuan town in the province.

The two of them and several others, mostly related to them by blood, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the heinous offense, which shook the nation to its core and caught international attention.

“That is the reason why they hate me a lot,” Akmad said.

Copies of the warrants of arrest from the RTC Branch 1 in Iligan City for the mayor of Datu Unsay and his 11 alleged cohorts in the ambush of Akmad — Ababang Salik, Edad Pendatun, Aboher Guimbangan, Toraipie Lusod, Gapor Magaluyan, Mohammad Shamron Sapalon, Samsudin Mokamad, Saudi Guiapal, Johari Guiapal, Soy Kali and Datuben Gayon — were distributed to reporters last weekend by ranking officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

The RTC Branch 1 in Iligan City’s having ordered the arrest of all 12 of them has triggered widespread tension in Maguindanao del Sur among their relatives and supporters and Akmad’s camp, prompting the PRO-BAR and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division to guard against a possible outbreak of hostilities between them.

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