By E.P. Dakanay
The onus on the Maguindanao massacre without doubt rests on the shoulders of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) for having struck an unholy alliance with the rival clans of Ampatuan and Mangundadatu to cheat in the 2004 presidential elections to ensure her victory, and in the 2007 senatorial elections for the benefit of her candidates. This alliance was an essential structure for the ravage of the electoral process in the area by “Garci” (Virgilio Garcillano) and his generals to favor GMA. Now the monster has come to roost, claiming 57 (or maybe more) lives. The victims are seven of the womenfolk and lady lawyers of the Mangundadatu clan on the way to file the Certificate of Candidacy for governorship of Maguindanao on behalf of Esmael Mangundadatu, 25 media men and women who came along to cover the event, and innocent travelers on the same road who were killed to eliminate possible witnesses to the gruesome crime. Shortly after the tragic event, Presidential Adviser on Peace Jesus Dureza was dispatched seemingly to reassure the Ampatuans of GMA’s friendly concern. Three days later, Dureza made the announcement that the principal suspect—Andal Ampatuan, Jr.—(referred to in the press as the “hatchet man” of the Ampatuan clan which has ruled the Maguindanao province for the duration of GMA’s presidency) had finally consented to submit to the Philippine Republic’s judicial process and was promptly flown to Manila and delivered to NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) detention center under the loving gaze and tender care of Dureza.
Meanwhile, under pressure from an outraged Philippine media and shocked international community, GMA declared that the full resources of government will be employed to prosecute the perpetrators of the heinous crime, and justice for the victims will be served; qualifying, however, via Malacañang spokesmen’s statements, that her personal friendship with the Ampatuan clan endures and will not be severed. One wonders what dark secrets GMA shares with these murderous groups that she would be overly solicitous of their sensibilities. It is reported that until recently, GMA was trying to resolve the clashing ambitions of her erstwhile election scam cohorts with an offer to Esmael Mangundadatu of any of the following government posts if he abandons his plan to run for the governorship of Maguindanao, now the domain of the Ampatuans: a. Ambassadorial post; b. Cabinet Undersecretary; c. Directorship in the National Power Corporation; d. Custodian of a government property. Perhaps, sensing that there is little prospect of life beyond May 2010 for the GMA administration, Mangundadatu rejected all of these.
For his part, GMA’s candidate for president, former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro has extended a sympathetic hand to the Mangundadatus and has expelled the Ampatuans from his Lakas-Kampi party, which may not count much anyway since most of its partisans have already been jumping ship in recent weeks. What Teodoro needs to explain is what he had done in the more than two years he was Sec. of National Defense to put under effective control the private armies of politicians in Mindanao euphemistically referred to as Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVO) legalized by Executive Order 546 of GMA. The Ampatuans have nearly 400 heavily armed men in this category. The Mangundadatus could well have a number of their own. Rumors are these groups are armed with more powerful weapons than our troops in the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). If this is a measure of the kind of leadership Teodoro can provide, woe unto us if he is elected president. Nothing much has been heard from Teodoro’s replacement, Secretary Norberto Gonzales, on how he proposes to deal with the politics and peace and order gone awry in Maguindanao. Perhaps he should be spared the stress that might send him to the Philippine Heart Center clutching a banana as had happened when he was under investigation in the senate for a propaganda deal he was hatching with a U.S. public relations company to project GMA in a better light than reality, illegally expending public funds for the purpose.
More on GMA’s candidate for president—Gilbert Teodoro’s proclamation along with his vice-president shanghaied hours earlier (Edu Manzano), was a spectacle to behold. The stage was arranged similar to that of the U.S. Democratic Party convention with part of the center projecting about 15 feet into the audience which Teodoro paced back and forth (ala Pres. Barack Obama) as he delivered his acceptance speech. With gestures and gait carefully measured, were he sufficiently tanned under the Boracay sun, he could have handily qualified in a movie cast-search for an Obama of the Pacific. To symbolize the transfer of leadership in the Lakas-Kampi to her presidential bet, GMA sat among the audience, in rapt attention as Teodoro harangued his audience with solemn promises to rid the country of the ills she has brought upon it in her nine-year rule. Every effort is made to project Teodoro as “Matalino at Magaling” in the midst of the stark reality that the Department of National Defense under him for more than two years has not brought us closer to peace since GMA boasted that she will crush the insurgency and lawlessness in the countryside within a year of her assumption of the presidency nine years ago. During her brief visit in Manila earlier in the month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broadly hinted that GMA should come to terms with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) during her term. A week before her arrival, it is reported that officials of the U.S. State Department had met in Makati with leaders of the MILF without Teodoro’s Department of National Defense (he had not yet resigned at the time) having any inkling on what was going on. Hillary Clinton’s parting message to the nation was that corruption in government is inimical to the progress of any country. No comment from GMA was reported by media.
A bit of good news for the country, in addition to Manny Pacquiao’s conquest of the boxing world was CNN’s choice of Efren Peñaflorida as “HERO of the YEAR” for his effort to teach out-of-school children in the streets to read and write as he moves around the streets of Metro-Manila with his push-cart filled with modest reading and writing materials. GMA has awarded him the “ORDER of LAKANDULA, Rank of Kumandante.” It has been announced that GMA would duplicate his feat. She might just launch a thousand push-carts and forget about building proper classrooms of which we are short of by the thousands. This has been a month of grand awards with GMA also having awarded Hillary Clinton and Manny Pacquiao the “ORDER of SIKATUNA, Rank of Commander.” To the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, she offers her heartfelt concern and enduring friendship!
No Responses to “The Maguindanao Massacre—GMA’s Gruesome Legacy?” Leave a reply ›