MANILA – The scion of a powerful and influential clan implicated in the Maguindanao massacre of at least 57 people met on Sunday with about 20 mayors in the province of Maguindanao in an apparent attempt to consolidate their forces following the massive local and international protests and denunciations that greeted the tragedy.
Governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) sat down with the 20 mayors inside his palatial mansion in the capital town of Shariff Aguak, reportedly to give the side of his clan on the massacre.
Maguindanao has for its governor Zaldy’s father and patriarch of the clan, Andal Ampatuan Sr. who is now on his third and final term. Maguindanao is a component province of ARMM, along with Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Marawi City.
Officials revealed their stranglehold on Maguindanao is so complete and pervasive that 20 of the 22 town mayors are considered as “loyalists” because most of them are sons, brothers or close relatives of the Ampatuan clan.
While Zaldy was meeting the mayors inside the mansion, reports said that about 3,000 of their followers demonstrated outside, carrying placards and streamers and shouting support for the clan.
Zaldy did not give details of the meeting but instead issued a press statement in which he vehemently protested their expulsion from the ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats as proposed by former defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro, the party’s standard bearer in the May 2010 elections.
Teodoro said the expulsion of Zaldy, his brother Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town and their father stemmed from their failure to live by the party’s ideals for “peaceful, orderly and honest” political exercises.
But Zaldy protested that Teodoro did not give them the benefit of giving their side on the massacre.. He also said that despite their expulsion from the party, they would remain supportive of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with whom they have close personal and political relations as acknowledged by Malacanang.
In the same statement, Zaldy admitted that aside from their expulsion, they and other town officials of Maguindanao face the possibility of being suspended by Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government for their alleged involvement in the massacre.
On Thursday, President Arroyo granted Puno full control and supervision over ARMM, including the preventive suspension of up to three months of officials, especially in Maguindanao, implicated in the massacre of 57 people, including the wife and two sisters of Vice Mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu of Buluan town, the scion of a rival clan.
Mangudadatu filed his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao reportedly against Mayor Ampatuan who is being groomed by the clan to succeed their father in next year’s polls.
Earlier, the President declared a state of emergency in the two ARMM provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and the neighboring Cotabato City.
Zaldy pointed out he was not in Maguindanao when the massacre occurred in the morning of November 23. He showed an airline ticket which indicated he was in Manila on that day for a conference with President Arroyo and other officials in Malacanang.
This was confirmed by Secretary Gabriel Claudio, the presidential adviser on political affairs, who said he met with Zaldy in Malacanang on November 23. He added Zaldy had asked government support for the candidates the Lakas-Kampi CMD regional chapter in ARMM was putting up in Sulu in next year’s elections.
At the same time, Zaldy appealed for sobriety from the public and justice and fair play from media in connection with their clan’s alleged involvement in the massacre.
His brother Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr is now detained at the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Manila since he surrendered Thursday in Maguindanao after he was tagged by the police as the prime suspect in the massacre.
Secretary Agnes Devanadera of the Department of Justice said they expect to file multiple murder charges against Mayor Ampatuan before the Regional Trial Court of Cotabato when government offices open on Tuesday.
But Devanadera pointed out the charges could be amended to terrorism as proposed by administration Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a former lower court judge.
Under the country’s anti-terrorism law, officially known as the Human Security Act of 2009, a single court conviction of a terrorist is penalized by a maximum imprisonment of 40 years without the possibility of a parole.
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