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Zaldy Ampatuan asks SC to prevent his suspension as ARMM gov


The brother of the principal suspect in the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao has asked the Supreme Court to prevent the national government from suspending him as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and taking over the functions of other local officials in the ARMM who were implicated in the crime. Zaldy Ampatuan, brother of Datu Unsay town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., asked the high tribunal to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Proclamation No. 1946 and Administrative Order No. 327. He claims that the two orders signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are “unconstitutional" and “illegal," and have hindered him and other ARMM officials from performing their functions. Proclamation No. 1946 issued last November 24 placed the provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City under a state of emergency, while Administrative Order No. 273 authorized Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno to exercise administrative control over ARMM, including the power to suspend local officials suspected of having a hand in the massacre. Through counsel Philip Sigfrid Fortun, Ampatuan and co-petitioners ARMM Vice Governor Ansaruddin Adiong and ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly Speaker Regie Sahali-Generale, argued that the two orders violated Section 1, Article V, and section 2, Article XVI of Republic Act No. 9504 or the Expanded Organic Act for ARMM, which allows the regional government to exercise disciplinary authority over its officials and employees. “The power to discipline erring officials or employees lies with the regional government. Thus, to mete the penalty of suspension and replacement upon those who are merely suspected, and not to mention, not proven to have complicity in the Maguindanao massacre is to unforgivably and despotically contravene the provision," said the petitioners in their 30-page petition. They also claimed that Proclamation No. 1946 should not be applied to ARMM because the state of emergency was only imposed in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, and Cotabato City. The proclamation should not also be imposed in Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City, according to the petitioners, because “there is neither tension nor critical occurrences" in the said areas. “If petitioners are not allowed to perform their tasks freely, or if they are replaced on the lame excuse that they are suspected to be complicit in the Maguindanao massacre, serious damage and prejudice will be caused to them as they would be totally deprived of their opportunity to render service and to fulfill their duties only upon conjectures," the petitioners said. The possibility of retaliation by the Mangudadatus, the rival clan of the Ampatuans, should not also be used as basis to declare a state of emergency in Maguindanao, according to the ARMM governor. Moreover, the petitioners claimed that Mrs. Arroyo’s exercise of emergency power over ARMM was illegal because she used it without concurrence from Congress. Petitioners further claimed that the takeover of the region could be a ploy of the national government to manipulate the results of the 2010 elections. “Let it not also be forgotten that this take-over could be a tool for political expediency to stifle free elections, to favor administration-backed candidates, and to emasculate any opposition," they said. - ARCS, GMANews.TV

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