5 Maguindanao mayors asked to explain for 'abandoning' post

FIVE local executives from Maguindanao were ordered to explain for allegedly abandoning their posts when the Muslim rebels threatened to attack their respective towns over the weekend, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Friday.

Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo issued Friday the show cause orders against Mayor Bai Zandra Sinsuat Ampatuan of Saydona town; Mayor Bai Reshal Santiago Ampatuan of Datu Unsay; Mayor Bai Bongbong Midtimbang Ampatuan of Datu Hoffer town; Mayor Datu Saudi Sheam II B. Ampatuan of Saudi Ampatuan; and Vice Mayor Kanor D. Ampatuan of Salibo town.

Vice Mayor Kanor D. Ampatuan assumed as mayor of Salibo town after its duly-elected mayor, Akmad Ampatuan, had gone hiding three months ago after a warrant for his arrest was issued against him by a Midsayap, North Cotabato court after new witnesses implicated him in the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre case.

The Maguindanao mayors were allegedly not present in their respective areas when Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) rebels led by Ameril Umbra Kato threatened to attack on Sunday morning.

At least eight people -- four soldiers and four civilians -- were killed in the skirmishes between the BIFM and Army soldiers in the towns of Guindulungan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Unsay, Datu Hoffer, all in Maguindanao in the last five days.

The DILG chief gave the alleged "absentee" Maguindanao mayors five days within which to answer why they should not be charged for abandonment of post as they were reportedly not around when Kato’s men threatened to attack their towns.

"We have received reliable information that said local chief executives were not in their respective towns when Kato's men perpetrated the attacks. Most of them are said to be holding offices-cum-residences in Cotabato City," Robredo said.

Kato, a Saudi-trained cleric and former chief of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF’s) 150th Base Command, was dropped from the secessionist group's roster two years ago for alleged abuses and insubordination.

Shortly before midnight Sunday, Kato's group attacked almost a dozen Army road side detachments, a brigade and a battalion headquarters in the adjoining Maguindanao towns of Shariff Aguak, Datu Saudi, Datu Unsay and Guindulungan.

The BIFM's attack, it claimed, were in retaliation for the June 21 military incursion on its enclave in the province that sparked a confrontation and the death of guerilla identified as Mohammad; and the death of nine of their comrades last July 26 by the Army’s Special Forces in Bgy. Kabembeng, Sumisip, Basilan.

Kato, feared for his strict enforcement of a Taliban-style justice system in areas where he operates, was booted out from the MILF in 2008 when he plundered more than 40 farming villages in North Cotabato and Maguindanao in protest against the Supreme Court's decision to scrap the Government of the Philippines-MILF Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain. (SDR/Sunnex)