Two more Army-built Maguindanao schools inaugurated

DATU UNSAY, Maguindanao
--- Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on Thursday willingly had himself
photographed with pupils in a school named after the main plotter of the
Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre” that left 58 people dead, one of
them his spouse.The governor and Major Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan of the Army’s 6thInfantry
Division were at Datu Unsay Central Elementary School in Datu Unsay
town to inaugurate a newly-rehabilitated school building which bandits
hostile to the Ampatuan clan burned down two years ago.Datu Unsay is the nickname of Andal Ampatuan, Jr., who was former mayor of the same municipality.Ampatuan,
Jr. was tagged as one of the masterminds in the now infamous
Maguindanao massacre incident, the country’s worst election-related
violence ever.His
patriarch, Andal Ampatuan, Sr., most known as Datu Andal, former
governor of the province, died of liver cancer more than three months
ago while in detention for his involvement in the massacre.The repair of the four-classroom building in Datu Unsay was initiated by the Army’s 6thCivil Military Operations Battalion and the 34thInfantry Battalion led by Lt. Cols. Noman Alcovindas and Edgar Delos Reyes, respectively.The
project was funded by the office of Mangudadatu through the provincial
government’s emergency and disaster response group under Lynette
Estandarte, who is chief budget officer of the province.Mangudadatu
was accompanied to the Datu Unsay project site by his siblings, Mayor
Freddie of Mangudadatu town and Assemblyman Khadafeh, a member of the
Regional Legislative Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao. Every
time I would hear, or read about the name of one of the suspects in the
Maguindanao massacre as if my heart is being torn into pieces but I
have no way but engage in this project still because it will benefit
school children from families that needs access to quality education,
children we want to set free from the bondage of illiteracy,”
Mangudadatu said.Mangudadatu
said he willingly acceded to requests by school children for a photo
session near an overhead signage indicating the name of their school
which reminds him of the Maguindanao massacre, where he lost his wife,
Genalyn, and several relatives.At least 32 of the 58 people that perished in the incident were journalists.The
victims were on their way to the old provincial capitol in Shariff
Aguak, to file on Mangudadatu’s behalf his certificate of candidacy for
Maguindanao governor during the 2010 elections, when members of the
Ampatuan private militia, led by Ampatuan, Jr., intercepted their
convoy, herded into a nearby hill where they were killed one after
another.Ampatuan,
Jr. was to aspire for Maguindanao’s gubernatorial post during the 2010
local polls, an ambition Mangudadatu, then vice-mayor of Buluan, planned
to contest.Ampatuan,
Jr. and several members of his family were arrested and subsequently
detained in connection with the massacre case, still being litigated in a
Quezon City court.Also
present in the event at the Datu Unsay school campus were Mangudadatu’s
son, Jhazzer, who is vice-mayor of Buluan town and Maguindanao’s
appointed deputy governor, Ramil Dilangalen.The
same group of officials opened on Thursday afternoon to Moro students a
new two-classroom Islamic school building constructed in Barangay
Kulasi in Gen. S.K. Pendatun town by members of the Army’s 33rdIB led by Lt. Col. Ricky Bunayog and his superior, Col. Melquiades Feliciano of the 601stBrigade.Carpenters and masons from the 33rdIB built the two classroom Islamic school building amid the heavy presence of Moro rebels in the surroundings.Mangudadatu paid for all the materials used in the project, including cement and aggregates supplied by Estandarte’s office.Mangudadatu
awarded Bunayog with a special citation plaque, in the presence of
Barangay Kulasi residents, for his role in the construction of the
Islamic school building, an extension of a two-classroom structure which
members of the 33rdIB constructed last year