DAVAO CITY?A lawyer of the powerful Ampatuans has come out swinging against the woman who, he said, the clan helped make President.

Philip Pantojan said Malacañang dropped the Ampatuans like a hot potato?and even backed the filing of rebellion charges against them despite the purported lack of evidence?in an effort to save face.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Pantojan said the Ampatuans were surprised that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s administration turned its back on them despite the purported benefits it had received from the clan.

?The government is like Cinderella or Snow White ? [It wants to] live happily ever after,? he said.

Pantojan said Malacañang had forgotten that the influence of the clan led by Andal Ampatuan Sr. helped make ?Gloria? President in 2004.

He pointed out that the Ampatuans? home province of Maguindanao produced a zero vote for actor Fernando Poe Jr., the opposition standard-bearer, in that year?s presidential election.

?The Ampatuans truly helped the First Family in so many instances and forms in the past,? Pantojan told reporters at Grand Menseng Hotel.

The lawyer said the Arroyo administration was distancing itself from the Ampatuans in view of the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 civilians, mostly journalists, in Maguindanao.

Andal Ampatuan Jr., the mayor of Datu Unsay town, is the primary suspect in the massacre. He has been charged with 41 counts of murder and is being held at the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Manila.

Palace unwilling to help

?After the Ampatuans were implicated in the massacre, no one from Malacañang was willing to help them anymore,? Pantojan said.

?The government did not mind the correct judicial process anymore. It was not followed in the arrest of my clients,? he said.

Ampatuan Sr., his other sons including Zaldy Ampatuan, the suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and a number of relatives and followers have been taken into custody and are facing rebellion charges in connection with the Nov. 23 massacre.

?Parang bakla?

?The government didn?t care if laws were violated for as long as [its officials] will live happily ever after,? Pantojan said.

He said the rebellion charges were weak and insubstantial??parang bakla.?

?Was there a looming rebellion? The element of rebellion is an uprising. I did not see that while I was there [in Maguindanao]. And if there was rebellion, as [the government is] claiming, why were the arms supposedly used in this uprising buried? Is that an uprising?? Pantojan said, referring to the caches of firearms earlier found by state forces in the properties of members of the clan.

The lawyer added: ?Nobody wants to help the Ampatuans now. [But] look at what the Ampatuans did for them in the past. And yet they have made the Ampatuans the smallest particles in the world ? The Ampatuans are victims of trial by publicity and conspiracy.?

Innocence

But despite Malacañang?s withdrawal of support from its former ally, Pantojan said, the defense ?will help the government open its eyes to the truth.?

?Give us the opportunity to prove it in court. Surely as the sun rises, the Ampatuans are innocent,? he declared. Jeffrey M. Tupas, Inquirer Mindanao