InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - (UPDATE - 12:45 p.m.) A former employee of the Ampatuan family of Maguindanao told the Senate on Tuesday that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered clan patriarch Andal Sr., then governor of the central Mindanao province, to ensure a 12-0 sweep for her administration’s Senate slate in the 2007 elections.
Ahmad Mamucao, a former consultant of the Ampatuans, said the order was given by Arroyo, who is now second district representative of Pampanga, during a meeting in Malacanang Palace in April 2007, a month before the polls.
He said he was with the party of Ampatuan.
Although Mamucao said he was not present when Arroyo gave the order to Ampatuan, she repeated the instructions when they transferred to a room where the then Maguindanao governor’s companions were waiting.
“The purpose of the meeting was for a 12-0 (sweep). Hindi ko narinig ang order pero nang lumipat siya (Arroyo) sa amin, doon ko narinig na dapat magkaroon ng 12-0 . Sinabi po doon ni Gloria na kailangan na 12-0 (I did not hear the order but when she transferred to our room, it was there I heard that there should be a 12-o sweep). Gloria said it should be 12-0),” Mamucao told the Senate committee on electoral reforms.
He added that he was given P17,000.
When he returned to Cotabato City, he said he was contacted by a certain Bong Serrano, who he described as a former political of Arroyo’s, who allegedly linked him up with a cousin of former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri for an “operation” in Bukidnon.
Zubiri was among the administration candidates who benefited from the sweep in Maguindanao.
Although he has denied any involvement in the alleged electoral fraud in the 2007 polls, Zubiri resigned in August year and was replaced by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who now chairs the electoral reforms committee.
It is widely believed that the Maguindanao sweep allowed Zubiri to edge out Pimentel in the 2007 Senate race.
Before the Palace meeting, Mamucao said he met with Ampatuan and former Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas at the Sheraton Hotel in Manila.
There, Mamucao said he jokingly told Unas that he would travel home to Cotabato for free, to which Unas supposedly replied that not only would he do so but he would have pocket money as well.
Unas recently surfaced to volunteer to testify on the alleged electoral fraud in Maguindanao in 2007.
However, his appearance has stirred controversy since he is accused of involvement in efforts to cover up the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan massacre that claimed the lives of 58 persons, 32 of them media workers, and of which key members of the Ampatuan clan, including Andal Sr., are accused of planning and leading.
Appearing at the Senate hearing, Zubiri again denied any hand in rigging the elections and also said he had never met with Mamucao, whom he accused of lying.
However, Mamucao told the committee that he never mentioned Zubiri in his testimony. “I did not mention the name of Mr. Zubiri in my testimonies,” he said.
Zubiri also denied having cousins named Rudy and Alex and claimed there continued to be a "demolition job" against him.
He presented his chief of staff, whose first name is Alexis, but Mamucao said he was not "Alex."
