EDITORIAL - 'Obscene'

If Malacañang had reacted to the Maguindanao massacre as indignantly as it did to insinuations that President Arroyo had a hand in clearing members of the Ampatuan clan in connection with the murders, the Palace would find it easier to sell its case to the public.

But the initial reaction of Malacañang to the atrocity in November, as the body count rose with each passing day, merely reminded the public of the fact that the Ampatuan clan thrived during the Arroyo administration, doing the dirty work of keeping at bay lawless elements in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The initial Palace reaction also reminded the public that dirty operations in the past two elections, which favored administration candidates, occurred in the ARMM.

At the head of the clan is Andal Ampatuan Sr., whose name and designation as Maguindanao governor are on the backhoe that was found abandoned at the massacre site. The backhoe was used to bury most of the bodies together with several of the victims’ vehicles in a common grave.

In 2007, Maguindanao was the only province that delivered a 12-0 vote to the administration’s Senate slate, which was trounced nationwide. The ARMM, whose governor is Andal Sr.’s son Zaldy, was also the scene of the vote-rigging scandal involving former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano during the 2004 presidential race.

Friends like the Ampatuans cannot be easily jettisoned, even in the face of a gruesome mass murder. Shortly after the massacre, this was declared by a presidential spokesperson herself, Lorelei Fajardo, a relative of the President who has since been reassigned to Central Luzon.

With Andal Sr. being cleared of rebellion, followed quickly by Zaldy and another Ampatuan being cleared of multiple murder, it was inevitable that people would suspect the hand of the President. That insinuation was “obscene,” according to Gary Olivar, the American citizen who speaks for the Philippine president. Malacañang should pardon people for not seeing the obscenity. What is obscene is saying that a massacre is no reason to end one’s friendship with political allies accused of responsibility for the crime. The massacre itself was an obscenity.