Mangudadatu hits gov’t move to tap Ampatuan’s ‘brains’

Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

“He’s Andal Ampatuan Sr.’s brains.”

This was what Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said Wednesday as he assailed the government’s move to tap former Maguindanao Administrator Norie Unas as a witness in the purported election fraud in 2007.

Mangudadatu said the government should instead investigate Unas, who had been tagged as among those who planned the implementation and cover-up of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, as well as the “plunder” of public funds allocated for Central Mindanao.

He said Unas’ decision to surface might be part of the Ampatuan family’s alleged plan to escape culpability for the gruesome massacre in November 2009 that left 57 persons, including Mangudadatu’s wife and sisters, dead. (The remains of a 58th victim have yet to be found.)

“Norie Unas is the master spinner of the mind of [former Maguindanao Governor Andal] Ampatuan Sr. He was [Ampatuan Sr.’s] ‘little governor.’ He was part of the planning. He’s Ampatuan Sr.’s brains,” Mangudadatu said Wednesday on the sidelines of the massacre trial at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.

“He’s also part of the plunder. We were surprised by this. I’m having a hard time sleeping. Why should it have to be Norie? We don’t need him,” the governor said.

‘Orchestrated’ move

Mangudadatu said the testimonies of several provincial election officers were enough to prove that election fraud occurred during the 2007 elections in Central Mindanao.

“The provincial election supervisors and other officers have the evidence to pin down those at the top. If we challenge [Unas], can he do the same?” the governor said.

Mangudadatu cited news reports saying that Unas had the blessing of the Ampatuans to come out and testify.

“He informed the family before he came forward. This is orchestrated,” Mangudadatu said, noting that it was former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan who first offered to testify, followed by former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol.

“First, it was Zaldy [a son of Ampatuan Sr.]. Then it was Bedol. And now, it’s Unas. What is this? We will see. It’s like they’re doing this piecemeal for the Ampatuans,” Mangudadatu said.

“What I’m saying is that we should also look carefully into the motives… of Unas to come forward,” he said.

Bloodlines

According to Mangudadatu, Unas is a cousin of Ampatuan Sr.’s wife and a brother of Senior Superintendent Bahnarin Kamaong, who ordered the deployment of policemen along the route of the Mangudadatu convoy before it was waylaid on Nov. 23, 2009.

“[Massacre suspects] Unsay (Ampatuan Jr.), Zaldy and Sajid Ampatuan (a former acting governor of Maguindanao) are Norie’s nephews. When Ampatuan Sr. was arrested in the mid-1990s for a killing, he also had himself jailed because Ampatuan Sr. needed an interpreter,” Mangudadatu said. “When I was still a mayor [in Maguindanao], it was Norie you spoke to because Ampatuan Sr. seldom spoke.”

Mangudadatu said Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes might have had a hand in Unas’ decision to surface.

“Brillantes was an election lawyer of the Ampatuans and it was Norie who talked with the Ampatuans’ lawyers,” the governor said, adding:

“[Unas] has been here in Manila for almost a month, and you should see who kept him and where he stayed. The other witnesses [in the poll fraud investigation] said they were surprised when they saw Unas step out of Brillantes’ office.”

A government prosecutor in the Maguindanao massacre case said the prosecution would be “in a predicament” if Unas was admitted into the government’s witness protection program because private complainants were planning to file a case against him.