Ampatuans, Gloria Arroyo and Hello Garci

Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr, the patriarch of the Ampatuan warlord clan, is a very close ally of Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Ampatuan’s role in the 2004 Hello Garci operation was substantial. Administration party candidates got ALL the votes of the Maguindanaoans last presidential elections, courtesy of course, by the Ampatuans whom election observers say, intimidated residents of Maguindanao.

Sources say Mrs. Arroyo’s election operators gave two (2) suitcases full of money to the Ampatuans to secure a 12-0 victory against the opposition in Maguindanao.

The Ampatuans are so close that Mrs. Arroyo supported the gobernatorial candidacy of one of Andal’s son, Zaldy, last ARMM elections. Money from administration-initiated government projects funded Zaldy’s campaign. Zaldy is now ARMM governor.

Andal’s other sons dominate the political landscape of Maguindanao, serving as mayors in several towns named after their forebears.

Maguindanao remains one of the poorest provinces in the country. Maguindanaoans remain poor because they are practically being enslaved by the Ampatuans. Every one knows that the Ampatuans maintain a private army.

Now that the elections is only five or four months away, and with the prospect of an automated elections, the Ampatuans, some journalists say, are quite anxious. Election operators are still clueless as to how to engineer fraud in the elections.

That’s why any attempt from those who want to contest the power and strength of the Ampatuans gets a deadly response.

Toto Mangundadatu is one. Mangundadatu was probably inspired by Grace Padaca’s campaign. Padaca won against another warlord clan, the Dys of Isabela. Mangundadatu wants to replicate the Padaca model in his province.

And what did he get? 46 of his sympathizers and relatives killed.

Reports indicated that the massacre was pre-meditated. It was planned. Several days prior to the incident, the Mangundadatus received death threats from the Ampatuans. When the Chief of Police of Sharif Aguak town gave the go-signal for the Mangundadatus, the family went ahead, only to find themselves going straight to their graves.

The backhoe of the provincial government of Maguindanao was used to dig shallow graves for the victims.

This massacre is an acid test for the government. If Mrs. Arroyo allows the Ampatuans to escape the full force of the law in this, then, the only solution to a huge problem like the Ampatuans is the application of deadly force. To solve warlordism, the people should take part in neutralizing these groups. Only the Maguindanaoans can solve the problem like the Ampatuans. They should be exterminated immediately.