COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/28 January) –  The warlord named “Ama” (father) is gone; the peace advocate named “Ina” (mother) has taken over.

Welcome to Maguindanao beyond the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan town.

For a little over a month now, Maguindanao province has been under a caretaker governor, Bai Nariman “Ina” Abdullah Ambolodto, the first female Maguindanaon governor.

She declined to answer questions on how much funds were left in the provincial coffers when she assumed post on December 15, ten days after then acting governor Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., called by many, including President Arroyo, as "Ama," was arrested.

The Commission on Audit, she said, has completed the audit and should be ready with its report.

What she will answer for is what her administration has received: P84.4 million as Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of Maguindanao for December 2009.

Though a bit late – shortly before the New Year -- provincial employees got their salaries for December, along with clothing allowance and cash gift. “What is due them should be given them,” she told MindaNews in an interview in her residence evening of January 21.  

Acting governor Ina. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

Ina did not file her certificate of candidacy for any post in the May 2010 polls “for personal reasons.” She made that decision even before the massacre.

That she is not running for any elective post is working to her favor, especially in realizing her three-fold mission until June 30: “to create an atmosphere to regularize the operation of the various offices in the provincial government; support conduct of free, orderly and peaceful elections; and facilitate smooth transition and assumption of duly elected officials.”

But how and where do you begin setting up systems to effectively govern 1.27 million constituents in 36 towns and 495 barangays, spread across 5,425 square kilometers of land?

In her speech before the 3^rd National Ulama Summit on January23, Ina said that in Maguindanao alone, as of 2006, seven out of 10 people  were poor. She wonders why “when it hosts the ARMM regional government center, the only province that has an airport directly flying to Manila, the largest port in Southern Philippines, long stretch of coast, with very large marsh and plains, mountains and rivers.”

“In 2006, a third of the Maguindanao population cannot even afford PhP 28.58 per day for his minimum food requirements.   One half of our poor people in Maguindanao cannot even provide for their minimum food requirements.   Then in 2008, Typhoon Frank visited our province, followed by all-out police action launch to capture leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.  More than 100,000 families have been displaced.  We still have more than 23,000 families in the evacuation centers,” she added

In her first three weeks as acting governor, Ina’s team called to active duty all provincial officials and employees; instituted the Monday flag ceremonies; conducted weekly public briefings, meetings with heads of offices and local finance committee; and regularized the sessions with members of the legislative council, where they deliberated and approved the Annual Investment Plan, Proposed 2010 Budget and other concerns.

Ina, 40, was elected as provincial board member of Shariff Kabunsuan in 2007 but served as acting vice governor when no governor was installed and the elected vice governor assumed the post. When the province was abolished and returned to Maguindanao, Ina was named OIC number one board member of Maguindanao.

But early morning of December 15, at around 1:30 a.m., a member of her staff received a call from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) “for me to be ready to assume as OIC Vice Governor.”

She said she went to the Capitol to assume the post of OIC Vice Governor by 11 a.m. but Local Governments Secretary Ronaldo Puno came at around 1:30 p.m.

After taking her oath as OIC Vice Governor, “I was shocked,” she said, when she was told she would also be sworn in as Acting Governor.

Her husband, lawyer Suharto Ambolodto, and their seven-year old daughter, were surprised, too. She had left home to assume the post of OIC Vice Governor and came home also as Acting Governor, with police escorts provided her by Secretary Puno.

December 15 was a Tuesday. The next day, Wednesday, Ina did not go up to the third floor where the Governor’s office is, but the second floor, where the Sangguniang Panlalawigan holds its weekly session, to preside over the session

Every Wednesday, this has been her routine: preside over the session on the second floor then meet with heads of offices or guests up on the third floor where the governor’s office is.

She does not feel comfortable sitting on the huge upholstered chair facing a huge executive table. She says she prefers working in another part of the governor’s office -- the conference table. She has no use for the bedroom and jacuzzi in the governor’s wing of the building.

Among the first things Ina did was to order an inventory of personnel, equipment, furniture and fixtures and to ensure that office hours are followed,  from 8 a.m to 5 p.m.

“Bumabalik na ang mga foreign donors,” (the foreign donors are coming back),.

The UN-funded ACT for Peace, she said, recently conducted relief operations for internally displaced persons. There are still 23,000 families who have yet to return home. Ina says she wants to send them home with a livelihood program, such as vegetable gardening.

As board member of  the defunct Shariff Kabunsuan, she distributed assorted vegetable seedlings under her “Gulayan ni Ina” (Ina’s Vegetable Garden) program. The vegetables harvested are intended for consumption but some entrepreneurial housewives manage to sell their extra vegetables.

She narrated how she ends up crying when visiting evacuation centers because “original bakwit ako” (I was an evacuee, too). She described how life was for their family when she was around 7 or 8 years old when they had to move around in their pumpboat in search of refuge.

She fought back tears while recalling how she would tell mothers in the evacuation centers to make sure their children do not stop going to school.

A graduate of  public schools in elementary, the Notre Dame for Girls in Cotabato City  for high school, the Notre Dame University for college and the University of the Philippines in Diliman for her Masters in Islamic Studies, Ina is a stickler for transparency in transactions and hopes she will be audited every month “para tapos na” (so it will be over).

She still doesn’t seem used to the idea that her province actually has money to help improve the living conditions of its constituents and its employees.

Provincial capitol employees based in the first district would gather in the Cotabato City plaza to get a ride to Shariff Aguak town, where the provincial capitol is, around 56 kilometers away or about an hour’s ride. 

She announced the province would buy a bus to ferry the employees. “Kaya pala naming bumili ng bus” (we can afford to buy a bus), says Ina. 

Would she be able to make a big difference  in the 197 days she is Acting Governor? 

Ina, who has been getting support from various agencies, is now busy preparing her report on her first 45 days as Governor.

She says she hopes that when the elected governor assumes post, whatever it is that she has done, “kung maapreciate nila, ituloy na lang nila” (if they appreciate it, let them continue it) [Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews]

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