MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo now finds herself in the eye of a storm amid criticisms that she is extending “favored and special treatment” to members of a powerful clan that is being blamed for the massacre of at least 57 people in Maguindanao province, Mindanao.
The criticisms mounted on Wednesday when Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told a radio interview there would be no quick arrest of the suspected massacre mastermind and other leaders as he stressed the need to observe due process.
Remonde explained the police are still gathering evidence preparatory to the filing of necessary charges in court against the alleged mastermind and the estimated 100 heavily armed lawmen and militiamen linked to the massacre.
He said it is only after the charges are filed that the police would make arrests of those involved in the carnage whose death toll rose from 46 to 52, following the discovery of six more bodies from the “killing fields” in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao on Wednesday.
Remonde was reacting to criticisms that the Arroyo administration has not exhibited strong political will in going after the alleged mastermind, identified as Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr of Ampatuan town where the bodies of the victims were retrieved from newly-dug mass graves, according to the police and military.
Mayor Ampatuan is the son and namesake of Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan, who is acknowledged as a staunch political ally of President Arroyo as well as the head of the regional chapter of the ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The Ampatuans are being blamed for the massacre in which the victims were members of the Mangudadatu clan, most of them women, as well as about 20 journalists who were on their way to the capital town of Shariff Aguak Monday morning when they were abducted and killed.
Ismail “Toto” Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan town in Maguindanao, said one of the victims was his wife, Genalyn Tiamzon Mangudadatu, whom he had asked, slong with his sisters and other relatives to file his certificate of candidacy at the Commission on Elections regional office in Shariff Aguak.
Mangudadatu said he would run for governor in the May 2010 polls against a candidate to be put up by Governor Andal Ampatuan who is prohibited by law from seeking reelection because he is now on his third and final term.
This developed as lawyer Leila de Lima, the chairman of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), led critics in denouncing the statement of Remonde regarding the need to observe due process in the case of the Ampatuans.
De Lima said she found it “disturbing” and “unusual” regarding the failure of the police to invite Mayor Ampatuan for questioning to give his side on allegations that he was one of those seen when 100 armed men stopped the convoy of the Ampatuans and the journalists.
De Lima pointed out that as a rule, even in ordinary cases, the police would invite suspects for questioning to shed light or give their side.
She also minced no words in denouncing the massacre saying: “What kind of animals are these killers? We are so shocked and enraged. This is beyond words, It is most despicable. This is the work of people who are not human. It is a bestial act of the highest order.”
Former defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro, the standard bearer of the Lakas-Kampi CMD in next year’s polls, agreed with De Lima, saying he was appalled by the massacre, especially to the dastardly acts committed against the women, including rape.
Teodoro said the leaders of the ruling coalition were to meet Wednesday night to discuss the proposal to expel the Ampatuans from the party
Teodoro specifically mentioned Governor Ampatuan and his son, Zaldy Ampatuan, the governor of ARMM, explaining that they should be held responsible for the massacre because they are the titular heads of the Lakas-Kampi CMD chapter in the region.
In the House of Representatives, administration Congressman Pax Mangudadatu of Sultan Kudarat province in ARMM, introduced a resolution on Wednesday, calling on vital panels in the chamber, especially the Committee on National Defense and Security and the Committee on Human Rights, to conduct an exhaustive and intensive investigation on the massacre.
The lawmaker cited the urgent need for such inquiry, saying that the Ampatuans consider themselves above the law and act as demi-gods especially in ARMM because of their close association with the Arroyo administration.
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