Party-list tagged as Ampatuan front

COTABATO City: A party-list group that was accredited recently by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was denounced as being “organized mainly for the benefit of the Ampatuans.”

The group known as ADAM, which stands for “Adhikain ng mga Dakilang Anak Maharlika,” has for its No. 1 nominee for the May 2010 elections Energy Undersecretary Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan.

The Energy undersecretary is a nephew of former Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr. of Maguindanao, also the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan who is now in police custody for his alleged role in the massacre of 57 civilians, including 31 journalists, in Masalay, Ampatuan, Maguindanao, on November 23, 2009.

But Undersecretary Ampatuan said that he organized ADAM as his own party-list group before the infamous massacre and that it has nothing to do with the Ampatuans.

He told The Manila Times that one goal of ADAM is to promote “Maharlika” values alongside indigenous peoples’ concerns.

‘Good Ampatuans’

“Ampatuans are good, few are bad. Filipinos are good, few are bad. Islam is good, few Muslims are bad. Christians are good, few are bad. God is good but some of his creations turn bad. The sad thing is, the few that are bad are publicized and many tend to believe they are the ones that represent the whole,” the undersecretary said.

According to the Luwaran, the interactive website of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Maharlika is a Sanskrit word for “noble” while its equivalent term among Moros and Indios during pre-Spanish times was “datu,” a term or title which is still retained and practiced among the Moros and in recent centuries by the indigenous peoples in Mindanao.

Translated into English, Adhikain ng mga Dakilang Anak Maharlika may mean “Aspiration of the Great Son of the Noble or Datu.”

A certain Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, a resident of Davao City, sent a statement to Luwaran opposing ADAM.

“We, in the civil-society organizations here in Mindanao, cannot stop wondering why a party-list organization such as the one organized by the Ampatuans can acquire accreditation where in fact it does not qualify as a marginalized sector and it was organized mainly for the benefit of the Ampatuan clan,” she said.

The statement disclosed that in June 2009, Andal Sr. gave Undersecretary Ampatuan his blessings to organize ADAM. –JULMUNIR I. JANNARAL Correspondent, Manila Times