President yesterday gave a sign that he does not like people to believe that he has embraced the Ampatuan clan’s “formidable voting machine”

He ordered a review of the inclusion of the members of the Ampatuan clan in the ticket of the Liberal Party (LP) for Maguindanao province.

Budget Secretary Butch Abad said that the President had tasked him, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas to look into the Liberal Part situation in Maguindanao.

Sec. Abad explained that it is Liberal Party policy to let local leaders choose who the party’s candidates should be for town mayors, town councilors, provincial board members and barangay captains. Governor. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu is the LP’s top leader in Maguindanao province. Therefore he has the “prerogative” to choose the LP candidates for local positions.
Gov. Mangudadatu’s wife and his sister were the primary object of the Ampatuan Massacre.

The two women, followed by the convoy of media people and Mangudadatu supporters, were taking his certificate of candidacy to the Comelec office to file it when they were ambushed and murdered. Before that the Ampatuans had threatened to kill him if he ran for governor. He sent his wife and his sister to register his candidacy in the mistaken belief that the Ampatuans wouldn’t kill women.

It turns out that Gov. Mangudadatu himself had chosen the Ampatuans who are now running in his Liberal Party ticket.

Sec. Abad told reporters that they of the central LP leadership had queried the Governor why he had Ampatuans in his line-up. Gov. Mangudadatu replied that not all who bear the Ampatuan family name are murderers like the Ampatuans who are now on trial for masterminding the massacre.

That is quite a relief to know. And it should remind us not to generalize against people.