Pagpati'ut - Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Mediating Violence In Sulu
The mayor is known to have his own style of governance, known as the
“Munibian Style of Leadership” (named after the mayor, Hji. Munib Estino)
or the “Power of Love” governance framework. Accordingly, it combines
autocracy and democracy in managing the local government. The
framework asserts that power should be used as an opportunity to pay
homage to God and to uplift the welfare of the people. “‘Power of love’
brings you to power, ‘love of power’ removes you from it.” 9
The Estino clan will have been in power for 32 years by 2013. There is no
10 within the Barangay, thus it is categorized as a peaceful
community.
1. Age. The majority is in the age-range of 18 to 50 years old, with the age
bracket of 30 – 40 years old having the greatest representation.
2. Gender. An almost balanced gender representation was achieved. It
must be noted, however, that the survey team had some hesitations to ask
married female respondents when their husband is around. (The hesitation
is based on the assumption that the married woman might not answer the
survey freely to avoid offending the husband.)
3. Civil status. A strong majority of the respondents are married.
4. Education. The number of those who attended formal schooling is
dismally low. (See Table 3) For the elementary level, none of the Barangays
have even achieved a 50% level of attendance. The data in fact presents
an inverse relation – as the educational level goes higher, the level of
attendance to it goes down, except for Silangkan, where attendance to
high school level is higher than attendance to elementary level. (A major
limitation of the research is that it did not probe whether the respondents
were able to actually complete each of the education level they reportedly
attended.)
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9 FFC. “Hj. Munib S. Estino ‘A Cornerstone of Sulu Political Leadership’: ‘Power of Love’”,
undated, p. 32.
10 The absence of conflict may have been due to the fact that the Estino clan has been in
power for a generation, and hence, has successfully overwhelmed its opponents.