As one of the lesser-known senatorial candidates the ruling Liberal Party (LP), Nariman Ina Ambolodto knows the enormity of the challenge of breaking into the Magic 12.
But she believes a” chance is still a chance however small.”
The only Muslim woman in the administration coalition slate said the opportunity to seek a Senate seat was more than enough, and she hoped she could use the chance to advance the interests of Mindanao.
“As a woman Mindanaoan peacemaker, my advocacy represents the anguished aspirations of the people and voters of Mindanao in their longings for a peaceful and better future,”
“I am happy to put myself at the service of the party and our political supporters,” said Ambolodto, the interior department’s assistant secretary for muslim affairs.
Ambolodto, one of two relatively unknown candidates on the LP lineup, was chosen by its standard-bearer Mar Roxas “to represent Mindanao because of her personal triumphs as a person who experienced displacement due to the conflict in Mindanao.
As a child, Ambolodto grew up as a refugee along the banks of the Cotabato River after her family was forced to abandon their home as a result of fighting that broke out in Maguindanao. But this did not stop her from pursuing her studies and building a political career.
As vice mayor, then league VP
She started as the vice mayor of Northern Kabuntalan, and later became a board member in her province. She was elected vice president for Mindanao in the Provincial Board Members’ League of the Philippines.
In the aftermath of the bloody Maguindanao massacre of 2009, in which 58 persons, most of them media practitioners, were killed, it was Ambolodto who took over the capitol, replacing Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the patriarch of the clan accused of perpetrating the crime.
During her stint, she pursued foreign donor agencies that initially withdrew their official development assistance to the province in the wake of the massacre, and convinced them to continue supporting Maguindanao.
“She has organized and planned well for what is now a renewed Maguindanao after the atrocity in her province,” according to the LP.
Ambolodto said she realized perfectly that her chances of winning a Senate seat were only slim, but added: “A slim chance is still a chance, we are already very grateful that a Muslim, a woman, from our community was given this chance.”
In a statement, she also thanked LP leaders for defending her inclusion in the senatorial lineup, including House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
“She has a very beautiful life story—Somebody who has been really a victim of conflicts (in Mindanao) and she has managed to go up,” Belmonte said of Ambolodto recently.