The clan politics of Maguindanao

WHEN one talks about politics and elections in Maguindanao, one will have to reckon with the clans, too. Or, a web of clans to be exact.

A spider couldn’t have spun a more complicated fabric of power: an interlocking network of a dozen families that link in and out to each other, each with at least six to at most 80 clan members running yet again in May 2013 for elective positions that they have controlled for decades.

Led by the Ampatuans – whose patriarch and scions stand accused as masterminds of the Maguindanao Massacre of November 2009 – these families include the Sangkis and Mangudadatus, Midtimbangs, Sinsuats, Dilangalens, Datumanongs and Hatamans, and the Semas, among others.

By blood or affinity, they are all related, their political and economic clout strong and unrivaled in Maguindanao, and now spreading to Sultan Kudarat and Basilan.

The Commission on Elections’ official list of candidates for the May 2013 elections reads like a who’s who of Maguindanao’s royal families, with the Ampatuans still top of the roster, with 80 candidates carrying Ampatuan as their middle or last name.

They are followed by the Midtimbangs and the Sangkis who are related by marriage to the Ampatuans, with 26 and 25 candidates, respectively; and the Mangudadatus, the foremost rival of the Ampatuans in the 2010 elections, with their own team of 18 candidates.

Also with 22 candidates are the Sinsuats; 15 for the Pendatuns; 14 for the Matalams, and eight for the Masturas.

The irony of Maguindanao is this: Far too many candidates — 1,180 in all for just 369 positions up for grabs — but far too few real choices.

In this three-part report, PCIJ MUltimedia Director Ed Lingao reviews the backward and forward links of the clan politics of Maguindanao, and its likely adverse impact on the May 2013 elections — an unchanged situation of poverty, absentee local officials, bad governance, and an unyielding culture of violence.

To illustrate the ties that bind, PCIJ Research Director Karol Ilagan worked on a diagram of how Ampatuans and their relatives form the other clans connect. The result is not a family tree but a spider web of clan networks that has defined, and continues to define, Maguindanao.

The most dynastic province in the Philippines, or one host to “the fattest dynasty” in the land, Maguindanao is a constant cellar dweller in lists of the poorest provinces of the country. It also ranks significantly low in indices of good governance.

Read The Clan Politics of Maguindanao here:

Part 1: Ampatuans, web of kin warp Maguindanao polls
Sidebar 1: The ties that bind