“It was my son who was attacked first,” Secretary Pangandaman, also a member of the government peace panel in the talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) told MindaNews in a telephone interview Sunday.

Pangandaman claimed the elder dela Paz shouted at his mayor-son and attacked him with a closed golf umbrella while the 14-year old who is “bigger than me” attacked his son using his golf club.

De la Paz wrote in her blog that  she and her brother were playing golf at the South Course of Valley, on the third hole when two golf carts went past them, “overtaking our flight, and setting up to tee off on the next hole.”

“My dad goes up to them and asks them why they would do that, why they would overtake us without even asking for our permission. Golf etiquette 101. One of the guys says that they're with the flight in front of us. (So what? That doesn't give them the right to just pass us WITHOUT asking.) So, we go to the 5th hole. The flight behind us catches up with us, and asks us what caused the hold up. We said that this flight just slipped in front of our flight. So we complained to the marshall. We play the 5th hole and walk towards the next hole, where there is a teehouse, and both the flights in front of us were there, talking with the marshall. The mayor of Masiu City, Lanao del Sur talks with my dad. Things get heated up. Voices were raised. But never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever imagine that someone would pull out a punch. Apparently not. He attacks my father. His flightmates, maybe 2 or 3 of them, rush to his aid and beat up my father. My 56-year-old father. My younger brother and I could not just watch. We rushed to break the fight. My younger brother pleads to the mayor to please stop it. To not hurt my dad. To just stop. His words still ring through my head..."Sorry na po, sorry na po...tama na...tama na po..." With his hands in front of his chest in a praying position. PLEADING. The mayor socks him in the face. My brother defended himself. My dad is still on the ground getting clobbered. My brother is the same way. I try to stop the fight, but all I can do is stop one person. There were 4 or 5 of them attacking now,” she wrote.

De la Paz added that she “thought it was all over” but the mayor allegedly shouted to his caddy, “Hindi nila kami kilala! Sabihin mo nga sa kanila kung sino ako!’’ (They don’t know us! Tell them who I am!)

“I lash out, but my dad held me back. I was screaming my lungs out, shouting to this mayor, telling him about what he had done. I said: ‘Nakakahiya kayo. Singkwenta'y sais anyos ang tatay ko. And kapatid ko kakatorse anyos. Anong ilalaban nila sayo?’ (You’re shameful. My father is 56. My brother is 14. How can they defend themselves against you). The mayor looks at my brother, point to his face, and says, ‘Tatandaan kita!’ (I’ll remember you). And he tells me that my brother has a bad attitude and that I need to watch him,:” she wrote.

She said they walked to the clubhouse to file a complaint.

The mayor’s group also came to the clubhouse, saw her brother who was still pleading, saying sorry and crying but “the relentless mayor still punches him in the face, and then sees my dad and goes after my dad again. Him and his friend pull my dad to the ground, pulls at his feet, and steps on him like he's dirt. I run to him and try to hold him back, holding him back by his shirt, while this other guy and this girl tries to stop me. She tells me to just stop it. I scream in her face ‘they're beating my father up and you want me to stop?!’ I pull at his shirt--I don't let go. All I can see was my dad being trampled on. I didn't even see my brother getting beat up,” dela Paz recounted.

“My mom and my older brother come. I tell her Bino's right ear is bleeding. They both look like they could kill. My dad holds my brother off, I hold off my mom. When I finally got my mom under control, my older brother gets away and I hold him off. Two of the mayor's bodyguards pull out guns. I embraced my brother from the back, just holding him back, crying. The receptionists came to us, crying, hugging me, my dad, and my mom, whispering to us to just leave. ‘Maam, umalis na po kayo, may mga baril sila...Maam...umalis na po kayo please...’ (Ma’am please leave, they have guns Ma’am, please leave).

De la Paz said she is “pretty sure the Secretary of DAR did not take part in the fight, but he just watched all this happen. …. He didn't do anything to stop it.”

All she asks for is justice, she said. “The people at Valley Golf did not seem to want to help us. None of the security guards even tried to stop the fight. Right in the clubhouse. I came back after the fight was over and talked to the receptionists. They say they did not see anything. The general manager of Valley Golf would not give us the names of the men who made my brother's ear bleed. It took him an hour. Maybe even more than that. He seemed to not want to help us. Because, we were against the Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform and the mayor of Masiu City (Masiu is not a city but a town – ed) Lanao del Sur. They were all scared.”

Secretary Pangandaman said the elder de la Paz had earlier thought his sons overtook their flight.

He said when he started the game, he asked for two flights for him and his friends, and his sons and their friends, but his mayor-son arrived late.

It is the Secretary who is a member of the golf club.

Pangandaman said that when his son was hitting the ball in the third hole, the de la Paz children were also hitting their balls. “Bawal yan” (That’s not allowed),” he said.

He said he ordered some snacks at the teehoue of Hole Number 5,  while waiting for his mayor-son. When the mayor arrived, he apparently figured in a verbal altercation with de la Paz. The elder Pangandaman said de la Paz was shouting at his mayor-son as the latter was explaining he did not overtake their flight.

“Minumura nya ang anak ko“ (He was mouthing expletives against my son) and “closed his golf umbrella and hit my son.”

De la Paz’ 14-year old used his golf club to attack his son, Pangandaman said.

He said his other son, Hussein, who is elder than the mayor, ran to where his brother was.

“Nagulat ako (I was surprised).  I tried to pacify,” Pangandaman said.

At the clubhouse, he said he saw de la Paz with other people who were carrying baseball bats and bladed weapons.

He said his mayor-son’s two bodyguards – one of them also the driver – were in the clubhouse but had no firearms since firearms are prohibited.

But the two bodyguards “got their firearms from the vehicles when they saw men with bladed weapons and baseball bats,” he said.

“The marshall and the caddies. They saw everything. It was de la Paz who started (it),” Pangandaman said.

He said his son went to the police to report the incident. “He suffered bruises and contusions,” the father said.

Pangandaman took exception to criticisms about his being a peace negotiator and his failing to prevent the incident from happening. “Unfair kasi nandon tayo just to play. It’s holiday. I seldom see my kids. It was also bonding for us,” he said. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

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