DISCLAIMER: This text is redacted from Jun Mercado’s blog on GMA News. Read the full text here.
“These were the actual arrangements in the political chess board when the Massacre occurred in the Province of Maguindanao that fateful morning of the 23rd of November 2009.”
Background: What is warlordism?
The Maguindanao massacre brought to the fore the issue of ‘warlodism’ in Muslim Mindanao. Warlordism in the Philippines, especially in Muslim Mindanao, is primarily based on a feudal system that continues to characterize the power relations not only between clans and families but also between the central power (Manila) and the periphery.
Warlordism is often associated with two major issues. The first issue involves the control over the machineries of the state that includes the security sectors (PNP and the AFP).
The second issue is about lawlessness with impunity. The ‘warlords’ are sort of ‘sui generis’ – ‘the rule of law’ is understood as the execution of their whims and caprices.
In modern times, the power basis of the warlords is no longer measured by the blood ancestry but by the actual ‘connection’ of the warlords to the all powerful Presidency of the Republic. People cite the infamous three “Gs” – guns, goons, and gold – in the making of the warlords. But the sad tragedy is that these three “Gs” are government’s ‘properties’.
Under the present dispensation, particularly in the ARMM, people speak in whisper of yet another ‘G’. That fourth ‘G’ refers to Gloria or President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Read the rest of this entry »
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