MANILA, Philippines – Dropped like a hot potato? They should feel lucky.
Malacañang On Friday bristled at the remarks of a lawyer of the powerful Ampatuans assailing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for abandoning them in the aftermath of the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 persons in Maguindanao.
“It’s a good thing that they’re being dropped like a hot potato and that a neutron bomb wasn’t dropped on them after what some members of the family have been accused of doing,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said at a briefing.
Murder outweighs debt
Remonde said accountability for the mass murder far outweighed whatever political debt Ms Arroyo owed the Ampatuans.
“Responsibility for a crime as heinous as the Maguindanao massacre cannot be bound by any utang na loob (debt of gratitude),” he said.
Ampatuan clan members have been arrested and charged in connection with the massacre of 57 civilians, including journalists, lawyers and members of the rival Mangudadatu clan.
Philip Pantojan, a lawyer of the Ampatuans, lamented on Wednesday that Malacañang had turned its back on them and even backed the filing of charges against them in an attempt to save face.
And yet, Pantojan said, the Ampatuans delivered crucial votes for Ms Arroyo that ensured her victory in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the 2004 presidential election.
He also said that in their bailiwick, Maguindanao, the Ampatuans produced a zero vote for Ms Arroyo’s then opponent, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.
RP’s ‘nightmare’
Remonde said the most that the government could do was to accord the Ampatuans due process:
“We still assure them that due process is being conducted. But if their lawyers expect that they can get away with it just because they supported the President in the last elections, then they must be dreaming. But their dream will be the country’s nightmare,” he said.
Prospero Pichay, Ms Arroyo’s political adviser, said the Ampatuans should not begrudge Ms Arroyo for mobilizing government power and resources to bring them to justice.
“No one is above the law. The President is letting the wheels of justice turn. Even if [one] is the brother of the President and he violates the law, I’m sure the President will let the wheels of justice turn,” Pichay said.
“How many of our colleagues in the media died [on Nov. 23]? Debt of gratitude is out of the question here,” he said.
Arroyo votes also from Cebu
Remonde said it was unwise for the Ampatuans to assume that their support for Ms Arroyo could shield them from prosecution over a wrongdoing.
“We support a President because we believe in the President’s programs. But it’s wrong to assume that this same President will tolerate any wrongdoing. What kind of a President is that?” he said.
But can Malacañang live with the fact that the Ampatuans delivered the votes for Ms Arroyo?
“Yes, we can live with the fact, especially because the larger part is that it’s not only the vote of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao that made the President win,” Remonde said.
“If we speak of any group voting, I claim that it is the Cebuano vote that really made her win. You cannot cheat in a place like Cebu,” he said.
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