Datu Paglas… Toto and the Town

 

Do you know about Datu Paglas?  Really, to talk about Datu Paglas could have two different meanings.  Datu Toto Paglas, the man; or, Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, the town.  Both topics are intertwined with each other, and I find both topics fascinating.  Want to learn more?

I started hearing about Datu Paglas, Maguindanao in about 2000 when I moved here.  It had become kind of a case study for peace in Mindanao.  After the 1996 peace pact between the MNLF and the Government of the Philippines, a banana plantation was started in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, and a large number of the workers there were former MNLF rebels who had come in from the fight after the treaty was signed.  The banana plantation was and still is operated by a company named La Frutera, Inc.

The story of Datu Paglas (the town and the man) is so complicated that I hardly know where to start!  I guess it’s always best to start at the beginning, though.  I believe that Datu Toto Paglas is the same age that I am, which would mean that he was born in 1962.  However, I have read from different sources two different years of birth for the man.  That’s beside the point, though.  Toto Paglas was born into a family of wealth and power.  His bloodline is a convergence of many of the most powerful families in Muslim Mindanao.

How did it happen?  Well, let’s go back and take a look at Toto’s father.  In his younger days, the elder Datu Paglas fell in love  with a woman who was from the Pendatun family, another powerful clan in Muslim Mindanao.  There was only one problem with this that the Paglas clan and the Pendatun clan were fierce enemies.  Their families had been battling each other for generations.  However, despite all this, Mr. Paglas and Ms. Pendatun married each other anyway, and because of this the two families decided to reconcile their differences.  Because of this unique bonding of two such powerful clans, upon his birth, Datu Toto Paglas was indeed a special child.  He had blood of royalty on both sides of his bloodline!

As the years passed, Toto was sent to Davao City to attend high school at University of Mindanao.  During his school days, he fell in love with an American-Spanish mixed Christian girl while at school.  She became pregnant, and the couple was married.  Toto was the young age of 17, while his wife was even younger, 16 years old at the time of marriage.  Toto’s father was infuriated, and stripped Datu Toto of all of his royal privileges.  Basically, Datu Toto was disowned from the family, and left to live with some of the farm tenants of his father.  The time came when Datu Toto’s father passed away, though, and the people of Datu Paglas Community wanted Toto to take over as Mayor of Datu Paglas, after a short stint his Mother took replacing the father.  Toto had to be persuaded, because he had been disowned by the family, and was hesitant to step back into his rightful place of inheritance.

It was under the leadership of Datu Toto Paglas that the town of Datu Paglas grew and prospered.  Toto describes how he saw such lawlessness in his place when he was a child, and he despised it.  He saw people being lazy, not working, etc., and he hated to see it.  Even so, few men are able to change these things when they come to power.  Datu Toto, however, did it.

Datu Toto Paglas instituted the program “Bawal ang Tamad sa Datu Paglas” (it’s not allowed to be lazy in Datu Paglas), which forced people into working, and working hard.  Datu Toto is not shy to say that he had to “crack the whip” on people who were trouble causers in his town.  It was under Datu Toto’s guidance, with special permission from then President Fidel Ramos that the banana plantation was set up in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, providing a livelihood for former rebels and others who could find no work.  Dato Toto Paglas made a big difference in his place.

Because of all I had read and heard about Datu Paglas (the man and the town), I had wanted to go there for a long time.  Finally, last week, I was able to do so, and see for myself.  The saying “Bawal ang Tamad sa Datu Paglas” is plastered everywhere.  Rooftops of public buildings and schools have the saying, signs, concrete planter boxes, just about anywhere you look, you won’t escape the saying.  And, I believe that it has had an impact on the people of Datu Paglas.

I am really happy to have visited Datu Paglas, Maguindanao and seen the progress there for myself.  I have been in contact with the offices of Datu Toto Paglas, and I hope to interview the man someday in the near future, it would be an honor for me to do so.  Datu Toto currently holds residence in Davao City, not far from where I live.  He is involved in peace building efforts worldwide, and I’m sure that he is passing along the good news of his own success as he meets with others around the world.  What a great way to plant the seeds of peace – from Mindanao to the rest of the world’s troubled regions!