A Day Tour @ Kutang Bato

It was with uncertain excitement when a cousin dragged us to Cotabato City, cutting our leisure trip of Davao.  I was told Cotabato City is 4 hours drive from Davao City. We left shortly after early dawn and arrived at the earliest morning. It was not so 4 hours. Cousin drove so fast I swear we made it in less than 3 hours.




And guess what welcomed our initial sight of the city? Living to the image of  Cotabato ==> an armored car (a tank) !!!. .joining the traffic as if it was just an ordinary vehicle!. .or was it really just another transportation to the eyes of the locals who are used of seeing camouflage cars on a daily basis? Must be. .

Strangely enough, the moment I stepped a foot to this city, I immediately felt like I wasn't in my comfort zone. It felt like I was in a foreign land. Not in my own country. It didn't help that the locals are actually tagalog speaking.  Definitely this is a Muslim city. I was not sure if it was the armored car or the local covered women or the fierce image that Cotabato has allover the country, but my self preservation told me to camouflage. I wanted to go around the town unnoticeable as possible. I had this weird imagination that if I would be seen differently, I would be punished, haha.

Anyway, I asked my dear cousin to first of all bring me to a store where I could buy a scarf  like the ones being worn by the local Muslim women around their heads.

I had fun choosing over pretty stylish head coverings.  I settled in buying ordinary scarves that I could use in my trips.

So on our next stop ( a beautiful mosque in the city), with my head already covered just like the locals, I felt I achieved my camouflaging well. Then we went to the airport, just to see , and I saw how heavily guarded it was with armed security people around, I chose not to use my camera in the airport premises.

It was nearing lunch so cousin brought us to his house here. Currently a resident cos he married a local of this city. Remember my post about the Ampatuan's mansions in Davao City? Same thing here. This another cousin resides too, near the mansion of Ampatuan here in Cotabato City. Above photo was the state of the said mansion during my visit. Again, similar to Davao's mansion, it looked abandon and unfinished.




Then we went to Notre Dame University which is the oldest college in the city. The campus was huge and looked like pretty close to a UP campus I've seen somewhere in the country but not as big as the Diliman. My cousin-in-law proudly toured us around the campus. It wasn't a tourist attraction but cousin-in-law wanted to show us where she had graduated. Ahhh. . .okey.

More driving around.  There was no familiar Philippine jeepney here like the ones in the roads of Manila and other cities of our country. Instead, colored modified vans ( lite ace? ) could be seen in the roads of the city as the regular mode of public transportation.




We got off the car to check the new city hall of Cotabato City.

It looked beautifully Arabic with white high pillars.

Next we stopped at the other fortress of power in this side of the political Ph. The ARMM. ( not really in that order. I forgot which came first among all those stops we made).




This too conveyed a unique architecture of the south. Only it 's not as pinky and grand like the ARMM in Maguindanao.

We passed by a bridge, a huge one, and I saw locals spending their afternoon at the sides. Standing and sitting looking out to the sea , might be taking a fresh? ocean breeze? You know how in Manila people enjoy passing their afternoons at the baywalk? The scene looked like that.




Then to cap our day tour of the historical city of Cotabato, cousin nudged me to take a photo of this hill with houses sitting on it. Why??? Cos it's the Kutang Bato. Exactly where the very name of this city was derived. Underneath it, he added, are the kutang bato caves can be found. 

So there. I'm ending this veryveryvery long (photo loaded) post of Cotabato City. And am so thankful cousin made it  possible for me to experience a day in the City of  Cotabato .

Pinky ARMM, Maguindanao

Another vast structure in this side of Mindanao had snapped my fancy.

It was the ARMM in Maguindanao.




It was huge, pretty in pink and empty. Again, I had no source to know why it seemed like another abandoned structure. There were no people, not even a guard in the gate. Cousin (fr Cotabato) said it used to be where ex ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan held his office.

It was monumental. Almost looked like an airport to me, you know almost as big as one of our terminals in Paranaque in Manila.




Without any serious harm intention, just pure souvenir photos, we decided to go up the main building to have a better view of the place.

On my left, facing the main highway road, was an annex building which purpose I had no way to know. Next to it  was another building which seemed to be a garage/parking for construction vehicles.

On my right facing the same road was another annex building. Not in photos, at the near right, almost beside this main building was a gymnasium or could pass as a coliseum cos of its size.

From where I was standing, was the main entrance of the seemed to be the main building. Although it was still considerable beautiful structure, "abandoned" is the best word to describe it.

Aside from the absence of people, there were deserted manifestations.




My growing curiosity couldn't keep my eyes to the outside anylonger so I tried to peek a little inside. I was not sure, but look_ seemed like a t.v. and someone was watching!




This is one vast beautiful structure that holds history of power. I wonder what's next for this pink elephant.

Ampatuan Town

It's not like when I'm on a trip looking for a bliss-y place I always end up in a paradise. Sometimes, my itchy feet would tripped over a controversial location .

Some place like where the Maguindanao Massacre happened. Hey, no way! I didn't go in there. I was still feeling kindah strange about this place. The air still blew eerie up to this entrance even thu' it was almost a year had passed. Above photo was where the cars were gun-pointedly rerouted from the main highway towards this rugged alley and apparently passengers were brutally killed later on.

Snap Facts : The Maguindanao massacre, also known as the Ampatuan massacre (after the town where the mass graves were found), occurred on the morning of November 23, 2009, in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao province, on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. While the victims were on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, they were kidnapped and brutally killed. Mangudadatu was challenging Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., son of the incumbent Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., in the forthcoming Maguindanao gubernatorial election, part of the national elections in 2010. The 57 people killed included Mangudadatu's wife, his two sisters, journalists, lawyers, aides, and motorists who were witnesses or were mistakenly identified as part of the convoy. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called the Maguindanao massacre the single deadliest event for journalists in history. At least 34 journalists are known to have died in the massacre. click source




After few minutes we reached  the Ampatuan Town. So aptly named after the powerful clan, almost all establishments in the town have their name on them. I was not so sure about why the town looked so empty to me. I could count on my fingers the number of people I saw in the town. Might be cos it was Ramadan during my visit but a relative from Cotabato said that after the massacre incident, the town turned out  looking  like a ghost town. The rest of the Ampatuans were said to have had left the province by this time.

Even the local businesses seemed to have had ceased the operations. For instance this gas station,.. wait something had caught my eye______

A backhoe !?? No, it's not, but definitely a construction vehicle. Funny, how the word backhoe became so word of mouth in our country cos of this incident. Even my girls now knew what a backhoe is! Only now it also defines synonymous with the Ampatuan massacre.

Business un-usual.

I saw only less than 5 kinds of structures in the town : people's nipa huts, commercial establishments, Ampatuan mansions and the seats of power ( of the Ampatuans) :

Oh well..?

Seemingly they are lovers of sweet colored lavish mansions. These three mansions are owned by the Ampatuan in this side of the province. See their Davao City's mansions here.




The excessive lifestyle is very pronounced by the vast difference of the structures between the huts of their constituents and those mansions of the ones who once ruled.




It's not fair to judge, especially I who is almost clueless about the clan of Ampatuans, but I just want to share you something :

"Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship".- Orwell,George