BY JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL CORRESPONDENT

He should have become a medical doctor but by a stroke of fate ended up as a politician instead.

Being a public figure has made Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu of Buluan town in Maguindanao province in southern Mindanao more famous than he probably thought was possible, ironically for the wrong reasons.

Not that he would have sought fame, he told The Manila Times, especially if it came with a price, except that late last year it presented itself before him with what could have been the costliest deal of his life and family.

On November 23, 2009, his wife Genalyn was among 57 civilians, including 30 journalists, who were murdered in Maguindanao. The order to kill allegedly came from Mangudadatu’s political rivals from the feared Ampatuan clan in the province, one of the country’s poorest.

Mangudadatu’s sisters Eden and Farida, who was reportedly four months’ pregnant, were also among the victims.

The Buluan vice mayor and Genalyn, a beautiful Ilongga, got married on November 11, 1991 when they were both students in Davao City, also in Mindanao.

Toto, 41, himself has tagged Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town as the prime suspect in the carnage.

Born on August 15, he also ironically shares the same birthday with Ampatuan Jr.

The Datu Unsay mayor, according to Toto, was even driving for him and Genalyn in Davao City, with clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. in tow.

A Maguindanao resident who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal called Ampatuan Sr. as the “Pharaoh of Maguindanao.”

Toto called the clan patriarch differently.

“If there was Saddam Hussein who had shackled the freedom of Iraqis, particularly the Kurds, we have also another Saddam in Maguindanao. He is no other than Andal Ampatuan Sr.,” Mangudadatu also told The Times.

During happier days when the Mangudadatus of Buluan and the Ampatuans of Maganoy that is now Shariff Aguak town were still political allies, Toto even affectionately called Ampatuan Sr. as “Lolo,” or “Grandfather.”

Stumbling into politics
Raising a family prevented Toto from realizing his dream to become a doctor.

He already was a father many times over when he earned his Political Science degree from the University of Mindanao in Davao City.

Toto still received allowance from his father, then-Buluan Mayor Pua Mangudadatu, when he was in school but he soon realized that he could not depend too much on his father to sustain the needs of his family.

He began selling carp inside the campus and then from his Volkswagen Beetle. The fish was supplied by his mother, whom he hardly paid back.

The little he earned was never enough, Toto said, so he decided to get outside help.

He went to Cotabato City to see the incumbent provincial governor of the then peaceful Maguindanao province. The governor at the time was lawyer Zacaria Candao, who incidentally was his ninong or godfather.

He told Candao that he was seeking livelihood assistance to feed his family.

Specifically, Toto asked the governor if he can engage in the selling of solar dryers, components of a livelihood program of the province at the time.

But Candao told him that as much as he wanted to help, he would be violating the law, since the ban on government projects and the livelihood program was already enforced by the Commission on Elections.

So as not to totally disappoint his godson, the then governor tried to talk shop with Toto, mentioning to him his political party lacked two candidates for provincial board member.

Candao told Toto that he would be drafted to take one of the slots, if the godson was interested.

Toto himself did not want to join politics, the same wish of his father who wanted him to enrol in law school.

Candao eventually convinced Toto to be a politician, telling him, “Your father was always instrumental in my political victories and you too would win elections.”

Pua Mangudadatu, a brother of incumbent Rep. Pax Mangudadatu of the First District of Sultan Kudarat province, was an influential personality who was the president of the “Magnificent 7,” a group of influential politicians in the province at the time.

As Candao had predicted, Toto won and became a provincial board member, receiving P14,000 a month the bulk of which helped cash-strapped constituents. He went on to win two more terms as provincial board member.

He was eventually elected as the mayor of his hometown of Buluan where from 2003 to 2007 he was adjudged as a “Hall of Famer in Tax Collection.” After he completed the required three-term limit for an elected local official, Toto settled for vice mayor, a post that he holds at present.

Buluan is classified as a fourth-class municipality. But Toto said that he had succeeded in bringing in foreign investment to the town from multinational companies raising bananas and palms.

In the May 10, 2010 elections, Toto would be running as governor of Maguindanao. His wife was filing his candidacy when she and the other civilians were slaughtered.

“Let us bring back democracy to Maguindanao where the voice of the majority is heard. Let us not bury the will of the people and, most of all, let us dismantle ‘franchised elections’ in Maguindanao,” he pointed out.

When asked to comment on the case of his wife and other massacre victims, Toto said he still believes in the justice system. “I know the truth will prevail and that the 57 victims will be served justice in the end.”

According to him, there are still good members of the Ampatuan clan who are respectable and highly educated and who observe the “rule of law.”

In particular, he mentioned Deputy House Speaker Simeon Datumanong, a lawyer and a former Justice secretary.

Another one, Toto said, is Undersecretary Zamzamin Ampatuan of the Department of Energy, who used to head the Office on Muslim Affairs and is a civil engineer.

He added that he does not lump up the good and the bad Ampatuans.

“It would be unfair to the good ones,” Toto said.