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Sarangani and Maguindanao: Contrasting neighbors

By Marites Danguilan Vitug, abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak | 01/28/2010 4:08 PM

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GLAN, Sarangani—Three priests and hundreds of people graced the opening of the Isla Jardin del Mar, the biggest resort in mainland Mindanao’s southern tip. Each priest blessed different areas of the sprawling three-hectare resort which offers rows of cottages and gazebos along the 800-meter long coastline.
 
Facing the languid blue waters of Sarangani Bay, Isla Jardin del Mar is the latest addition to Sarangani’s beach resorts, which locals boast can rival those of Boracay except that they’re in Mindanao, which always figures in the news as a hotbed of conflict.
 
“If we tell outsiders (foreigners and non-Mindanaoans) that our beach resort is in Mindanao, they get allergic,” says 63-year old tuna magnate Marfenio Tan, who owns Isla. For now, their target market are the locals and fellow Mindanaoans who wonder why their geography works against them when only a few spots are hosts to sporadic violence.  
 
On the same day of the revelry here, which was also a celebration of the partnership of local government and the private sector, families and friends of the victims of the gruesome Maguindanao massacre observed its 60th-day anniversary. Ampatuan, the town in Maguindanao where the killings took place, is only about three hours away by land, a partly scenic drive on paved roads.
 
However, the road leading to the hills, the site of the massacre, is muddy, lined by cornfields, with a few scattered huts and a small mosque. There, where bodies were unearthed, friends and families left fresh flowers and a tarpaulin with the names of the dead. Clouds rested on surrounding mountains and, in the distance, no one stirred as residents had abandoned their houses for fear of retribution if they spoke to anyone.
 
These two events happening in two nearby places on the same day show how varied Mindanao is, far from the monolith that others perceive it to be. The contrasts are striking, portraying the differing characters of the provinces and its leaders.
 
No-brainer
 
Miguel “Migs” Dominguez, the 33-year old governor of Sarangani, and Enrique Yap, Jr., mayor of Glan, are partly to credit for Isla’s birth. Tan’s property, which he bought 20 years ago, was unreachable by land. Dominguez forked out P10 million from the province’s budget to build a road and Yap chipped in with the town’s bulldozer.
 
Isla, apart from being a new source of employment and taxes, can promote Sarangani and generate interest in this coastal province wrapped by the Celebes Sea.
 
Dominguez is entering his final term in office—his last three years—while Yap is bowing down as mayor, having completed three terms.
 
In adjacent Maguindanao, the aging family patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr., has ruled the province for close to a decade, aided by his sons and in-laws who are either mayors or government employees. There is little the Ampatuans can show for this; their province hasn’t moved out of the bottom-of-the-poorest list.
 
Maguindanao is more complex than Sarangani, in a way, because it has been wrestling with a Muslim insurgency for decades; Maguindanao is home to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. It is also larger than Sarangani—it has 36 municipalities compared to Sarangani’s seven.
 
Still, despite the differences, it is clear that part of the problem is Maguindanao’s leadership. With its monthly P84-million internal revenue allotment, the Ampatuans chose to pour it on edifice over education, their family’s lavish welfare over food and jobs.
 
Fighting the insurgents
 
Dominguez has had to deal with insurgency, too, in a part of Sarangani. Working with civilian government agencies and the Armed Forces, Dominguez put a lot of attention on eroding the roots of the communist rebellion, through basic services for the communities.
 
“It took about five years before the NPA (New People’s Army) left Kinam (a barangay),” the Army’s Lt. Col. Manuel Sequitin says. “Combat played a limited role. It was more civic action, infrastructure and livelihood projects.”
 
Dominguez, continues Sequitin, would celebrate his birthdays in Kinam to show how important the community was.
 
‘Believe in what you do’
 
Tan, who has 13 children, some of whom are running their family businesses, has had to contend with peace and order problems. “If we always think of these, we cannot go forward,” he says.
 
Wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals, Tan says: “I am used to these, beginning with martial law in the 70s.” He was starting out in the fishing industry then as an employee and later set up his own business.
 
“I have to believe in what I do to see the result,” Tan stresses. “This has been my life motto. If I wait for things to improve, nothing will happen.”
 
People continued to arrive at Isla, where teams of women played volleyball, a three-feet tuna, instead of lechon, was spread on the buffet table, and others took to the beach.
 
It was time to leave for my next stop, Maguindanao, to avoid being overtaken by dusk on the road.