Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Cotabato city (Agenzia Fides) – Tension and great expectation on the eve of the vote on the island of Mindanao, in southern Philippines, the home of ancestral disputes and old conflicts with Muslim movements: local Fides sources say that in the area of Maguindanao, and also in other Mindanao cities, Davao and Zamboanga, pre-election tension is tangible; the results and the actual voting will be a measure of the reliability, transparency and new prospects in Filipino political life.
In Maguindanao – says Missionary Fr. Eliseo Mercado, a member of the Oblate Missionaries of Immaculate Mary who knows this area well– the Ampatuan clan is still firmly rooted, despite the clamour caused by the massacre of 57 civilians on 23 November 2009: “From the vote we will see whether the people are ready for a new beginning or if once again the winner will be the traditional system of political patronage”, the missionary told Fides. In the province in fact there has been a complete reorganisation of the police and the army, suspected of being in collusion with the Ampatuan clan and of covering up the massacre. With this re-organisation the government sought to remove all trace of the Ampatuan clan in the security forces. Fr. Mercado hopes that in this province “for the very first time the election will be an exercise of democratic voting and conscience on the part of the citizens, free of any obligations and blackmail, and that the Electoral Commission (also reorganised) will assess the election process freely and independently”.
However “if the winner is once again the candidate of the Ampatuan clan, we will know that this family still has control of the territory”. Voting in Maguindanao will be watched with extreme interest all over the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and could mark the beginning of change. “One pre-conditions for it to be a change is to disband all private armies and stop the proliferation of light arms ”, the missionary said.
This conviction is supported by the Brussels based International Crisis Group, think-tank, which stated in a recent report: “The new government must put the question of Mindanao among its priorities and focus on the peace process and the disbanding of all private armies, a key action towards reducing endemic conflict in this area”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 7/5/2010)
