December 8-14 (2009)

Private armies of politicians and warlords are all over Mindanao. That of former Maguindanao Governor Datu Andal Ampatuan is just the tip of the iceberg, although it is so far the largest and strongest. The Dimaporo clan’s private army in Lanao del Norte is as large as that of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao, and stays on far as way during the Marcos authoritarian rule; it has submerged from focus of attention in recent years. The notorious Barracuda is the private army of the late Lanao del Norte Governor Ali Dimaporo to fight off a political rival’s private army and to sustain or prop up his political and economic dominance in his turf.

In northern Mindanao, the Kuratong Baleleng of Ozamis City Mayor Ronaldo O. Parojinog is another huge private army. It was initially formed with the go signal of the military to fight the New People’s Army (NPA) but later actively used against the MILF in Lanao del Norte especially in the Estrada’s all-out war in 2000. Among other Christian warlords, in North Cotabato vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol maintains a private army; in fact, he has a firearm factory in Mlang, his hometown, which produces mostly M-79 grenade launchers and improvised M-14 armalite rifles. Former Carmen, North Cotabato Mayor Roger Taliño also owns hundreds of high-powered firearms, mostly registered as Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVOs) and Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs).

Warlordism is also found in provinces of Sulu, North Cotabato, Davao provinces, Lanao del Sur, South Cotabato, Surigao, Zamboanga, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, and elsewhere. Except for Sulu, North Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, and Sultan Kudarat, the private armies in the other provinces exist, legally or otherwise, as company guards of wealthy logging or mining oligarchs.

Almost without exception, these private armies mushroomed in Mindanao --– even in Luzon and the Visayas --- with the go signal or blessing of the AFP. Most of their firearms including ammunitions are sourced from the AFP; the huge cache of firearms including mortars, bazookas and even rockets recovered from the Ampatuans is a living testimony to the military’s dirty hands. Even the so-called ILAGAS in the 60s and 70s were organized, funded, and armed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) “dirty trick department” that started with the operatives known as “monkeys” in the provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac in Central Luzon.

Now the AFP-created Frankenstein monsters are biting the hands that feed them from the DND arsenals. The Philippine government is now fighting them - or at least in so far as the Ampatuans are concerned - to the extent of declaring martial law to suppress what they ironically labeled as “rebels’. It is a fact that the Ampatuan’s private army that had been used by the AFP against the MILF for more than a decade is now accused on the crime of rebellion. Were it not of the nationwide and international outrage over the Ampatuan massacre, the impunity given to these warlords would be treated with kid globes and would go on with human rights violations. Is the crime of rebellion in which the element of conspiracy is difficult to prove in court (with murder, rape, and arson being absorbed in the offense) into it the very convenient theory for their eventual absolution from a heinous massacre?