On the day of my arrival in Cotabato City, I got a text message from a friend: ‘come and be my special guest for the oath of office for the newly elected officials of Rajah Buayan Municipality in the province of Maguindanao’. My friend’s name is Datu Zamzamim Lumenda Ampatuan (or Zam to his friends) – the newly elected Mayor of Raja Buayan.  A sort of reminder to all sundry that NOT all the members of the BIG Ampatuan Clan are involved in the now infamous Maguindanao Massacre in 2009.
 
 
During the inauguration, Zam began by reminding the people present of his electoral promises during the campaign period. They should NOT forget them and they should hold him accountable for every promise he made. 
 
 
Zam has come out with a “Muslim Principle” on how to govern his people. He dubs it as ‘sunnat-tul Quraish’ – a tradition of the House of Quraish (the Prophet’s Clan).  Foremost description of the said principle is NOBILITY OF CHARACTER.  It is a character shaped by compassion and devotion to his people.  In a region known for ‘absenteeism’ of local leaders, a leader with noble character is mainly described as a presence with his people, especially in most trying times. He is not only easily accessible to his constituents but also a leadership that LISTENS with compassion and sympathy.
 
 
Then he moved on to say that leaders should NOT be marked by their surnames as if leadership is an entitlement owed to their family name.  Rajah Buayan is NOT about the Utto Clan or the Lumenda Clan or the Ampatuan Clan.  Leadership is assumed because people believe in them. The leaders bring with them the good, the development and beautiful to the place. It is in this vein that his main focus will be on the issue of LUPA.
 
 
The discourse is both RADICAL and REFRESHING!  Yet, in cases of rido (family/clan conflict), the singular cause that stands out is land.  Zam speaks of people, finally, owning their lands – both their farm lot and their home lot.  The conflicting tenureal systems DEPRIVE the ordinary people the certificates of ownership over the land they till and the lot where they have established their abode.
 
 
The discourse reminded me of the young Zam in the early 80’s when he was an engineering student-activist at Notre Dame University. As a young activist, he knew of the call for genuine agrarian reform that was NEVER an issue in the Muslim struggle. It was an issue both in the LGU’s controlled politics by the Traditional Leaders and the Liberation Fronts outside the generic names like ‘homeland’ and ‘ancestral domain’ but without actually addressing who would own, manage and profit from the said ‘ancestral domain’/’homeland’.
 
 
Zam believes that it can be done by appealing to the nobility of character both of the governors and the governed.  Ownership of land is NOT a far-fetched dream for the people of Rajah Buayan but a reachable goal by mutual consultation and consensus of what is GOOD for the community; what would bring development to the place; and what would make the community peaceful.  Zam is putting land issue as the main agenda in his governance. He believes the communal discussion of the issue of land would, hopefully, lead to a peaceful resolution of land tenureal system in the place.
 
 
During my portion of the rite, I could not help but tell the people that since my arrival in Cotabato City in 1965 (then as a young man) to the present (now I am in my senior years), never did I hear of any Muslim leader or any Liberation Front speak of land ownership by the people, that is, the land they till and the land where their abode is built.
 
 
Land ownership continues to elude the Moro struggle outside the generic labels and romantic appeal to ‘homeland’ and ancestral domain’. Yet without addressing who should OWN, MANAGE and BENEFIT from the lands, the poor would always remain poor and ‘indentured’ to an oppressive land system where the Moro masses never graduate from being tenants and subjects.  
 

As it is, leaders come and go; autonomous structures and political entities evolved like alphabet soup (ORC, LTP, ORG, ARMM, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Political Entity); peace agreements signed and agreed upon, yet the ordinary Moro peasants/farmers remain landless, hidden under the guise of ‘homeland’ and ‘ancestral domain’!
 
 
With the new discourse on land in Rajah Buayan, there appears a new and refreshing wind blowing that way (Rajah Buayan is the new name for Sapakan - the name in history books is as the seat of the Upper River Sultanate and the capital of the famous Datu Utto).
 
 
Fr. Eliseo Mercado is senior policy adviser at the Institute for Autonomy & Governance. Follow him on Twitter @junmeromi.