NP: Cory gave Andal Sr.’s break in politics
The Nacionalista Party (NP) yesterday said it was the late former president Corazon Aquino who gave the Ampatuan clan’s patriarch, Andal Sr., the break he needed in politics during her administration when he was appointed as an OIC mayor.
The NP also said that former Cabinet members of President Arroyo now in Sen. Benigno Aquino III’s camp and key figures in the Liberal Party (LP) are responsible for the reign of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao.
The party issued the statement to thwart the black propaganda being peddled by the LP that the Maguindanao clan is supporting the presidential bid of Sen. Manny Villar.
“Before the LP again starts to distort facts in order to discredit Senator Villar, let it be known how the Ampatuans came to be the most powerful clan in Maguindanao. And it all started with a political appointment from Noynoy Aquino’s mother, then president Cory Aquino,” NP said.
“And the so-called ‘civil society’ members in Aquino’s camp, who used to be loyal to President Arroyo, should take responsibility for allowing the clan to grow strong beyond control in the province by supporting their former employer.”
According to a Newsbreak article that appeared on its November 26, 2009 online edition, Mrs. Aquino appointed Andal, Sr. as OIC mayor of the town of Maganoy, which is now Shariff Aguak, just right after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.
Another account of Andal Sr.’s rise to political fame is that of columnist Herman Tiu Laurel.
In his column last Nov. 27, 2009 in the Daily Tribune entitled “The Ampatuans’ Yellow ties,” he said that former president Aquino appointed as Maguindanao OIC Zacarias Candao through the sponsorship of Tingting Cojuangco, wife of Noynoy’s uncle Peping.
Laurel wrote that Candao, who later became governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), in turn tapped Andal Sr. for Maguindanao.
“On any account, one thing is clear: that the political career of the elder Ampatuan started during the Aquino administration,” the NP said.
It added that the peak of the clan’s hold on Maguindanao was in 2004 when it became a powerful ally of President Arroyo during the presidential elections last year, which was believed to be rigged in the province.
“The same Liberals now surrounding Noynoy Aquino are the same ones who validated the victory of Gloria Arroyo in 2004, who did everything in their power to prevent a Fernando Poe Jr. victory. And with it, the patronage of the Ampatuans,” NP said.
“And now, Senator Aquino says the LP is scared of the ‘Ampatuan machinery?’ Well, the LP is just afraid of its own ghosts.”
The NP criticized LP for “misdirecting” the public’s attention by saying that the Ampatuans are supporting Sen. Villar.
“The Filipino public should be aware that it is the Yellows who nurtured this clan. This is just another black propaganda from the LP’s call center of lies,” the NP said.
