Ampatuan aide claims Arroyo gave ‘12-0’ order

The information officer of then Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. on Tuesday said he personally heard then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo give the order in Malacañang to ensure a 12-0 victory for the administration’s senatorial candidates in the 2007 elections.

Ahmad Mamucao, Ampatuan’s “working consultant and the acting Maguindanao information officer” from 2004 to 2005, said he was part of the governor’s entourage that paid Arroyo a visit to the Palace sometime in April 2007.

Mamucao told a joint hearing of the Senate blue ribbon and electoral reforms committees that he was with former Maguindanao Administrator Norie Unas, acting Sharif Kabunsuan Governor Bimbo Sinsuat, Arroyo’s political officer Bong Serrano, a certain Ric-ric Ochia and several others gunning for local posts in Sharif Kabunsuan when he heard Arroyo speak.

“Gloria said, Sir, it should be 12-0,” he said in response to a question from Senator Panfilo Lacson.

Mamucao said he was only supposed to pay Unas a visit at Century Park Hotel in Manila to ask for plane fare to return to Cotabato City when the provincial administrator asked him to join Ampatuan’s entourage to see the  President.

“She did not give direct instructions for us to cheat. She only ordered that the result should be 12-0,” Mamucao said.

After hearing Arroyo’s order, the witness said he did not sense anything “illegal” about it.

While Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano agreed that a “12-0” instruction from the party hierarchy was typical in a senatorial campaign, Mamucao’s story corroborated the testimony that Unas had earlier given to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Unas’ claim that he heard Arroyo give the 12-0 instruction while accompanying Ampatuan in Malacañang was used as basis for the electoral sabotage case filed by a joint Department of Justice-Comelec panel against the former President.

The Comelec filed the case on November 18 in the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, which on the same day issued a warrant that led to the arrest of Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative.

More interesting

Mamucao’s subsequent testimony proved more interesting.

He said that before flying back to Cotabato City, Unas handed him P17,000 and told him to call Serrano “who will explain the special operations” he would have to carry out.

Asked to explain who Serrano was, Mamucao said: “I have known Bong since he was with Lakas since 1998. I know him pretty well.”

Mamucao described Serrano as “a bald guy who stands around 5’6” and wears glasses.”

Maramag, Bukidnon

The witness said Serrano called him when he landed in Cotabato City.

The instruction was for Mamucao to proceed to Maramag, Bukidnon province, and look for a certain Alex and a Rudy whose cell phone numbers Serrano provided.

Mamucao described Rudy as “a first cousin” of Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, a senatorial candidate of the Arroyo administration then.

Mamucao said Unas’ nephew, Ali, joined him during the trip in a 10-wheel truck.

“When we reached Maramag, I called Rudy who told us to proceed to a spot that had a huge poster of Migz Zubiri,” the witness said.

Boxing gym

In an affidavit submitted to the Senate, Mamucao said Serrano later called and instructed him to proceed to a boxing gym at Maramag’s town center.

“Four well-built men were there and they seemed to be expecting me,” Mamucao said in the document.

60 boxes

In his testimony, Mamucao said that when Rudy and Alex arrived, he backed  the trailer into the gym and noticed that it housed posters of Zubiri.

The witness said he was ordered to transfer around 60 boxes measuring about 30 x 40 x 40 centimeters each to the truck.

Alex and Rudy then put lanzones, pomelo and mango seedlings in front of the boxes to conceal the boxes.

Mamucao said he took refreshments after all the boxes were loaded. The men later told him to drive back to Cotabato City.

When he inquired about the contents of the boxes, Mamucao said the men dismissed his question and told him: “Just follow what Bong Serrano said.”

Curiosity, however, got the better of Mamucao. He said that after driving a safe distance, he checked his cargo and saw what he believed were genuine copies of election returns, certificates of canvass, statements of votes and ballots.

Foundation documents

Mamucao said he realized then that the documents would probably be used to correct the “foundation documents” needed to support the doctored results of the Senate elections that were already reflected in the canvass of the Comelec headquarters in Manila.

Mamucao recalled that at that time, then Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol had wanted foundation documents produced to placate opposition candidates who were protesting the outcome of the Senate elections.

Ampatuan directive

In his affidavit, Mamucao recalled that two weeks after the 2007 elections, Ampatuan gave a directive “to ensure that Team Unity (the administration’s candidates) win in our place.”

“The opposition was leading two weeks into the counting. There was talk in our province that Governor Ampatuan would do everything to deliver on his promise to the President … the 12-0 outcome of the elections in Maguindanao,” his affidavit read.

Asked by Cayetano how sure he was about the authenticity of the documents, Mamucao said: “I think, Sir, the forms were genuine.”

The witness said that during the trip back to Cotabato City, Serrano would call him every 10 minutes or so to check his location.

The cargo was eventually delivered to Unas’ residence in Cotabato City. Mamucao said Estelita Orbase, whom he described as the acting provincial election officer of Maguindanao at that time, was on site to receive and check the delivery.

Cash payments

Mamucao said Serrano was apparently pleased with his service since he was given cash that totaled P50,000 during the three instances they saw each other in Manila later.

Their last meeting was a day after the Maguindanao massacre in 2009. Serrano was accompanied by a certain Leah at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Mamucao said he remembered Leah as a member of Zubiri’s staff in the Senate.

Senators later moved to invite Serrano to appear before the joint hearing.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman of the electoral reforms committee, said the joint committees would not drop its inquiry into the 2004 and 2007 poll fraud because of the need to identify the “weaknesses” in the manual elections.

Pimentel said the weaknesses could surface again despite the Comelec’s shift to automated polls.

Originally posted: 3:58 pm | Tuesday, November 29th, 2011