E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Ampatuan endorses candidate
[Straits Times] THE principal suspect in the Philippines' worst political massacre professed his innocence and endorsed a presidential candidate in a much-criticised press conference held in the capital's maximum-security jail.

'I know very well that I am not the perpetrator because I was in my town hall then,' Andal Ampatuan Jr., former mayor of a town in southern Maguindanao province, told a group of journalists.

Looking fresh and relaxed in a yellow shirt and arm band, Ampatuan endorsed Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., the opposition candidate who is leading in the polls ahead of the May 10 presidential elections.

Mr Aquino shrugged off the endorsement, saying he did not ask for it. His followers suspected it may have been a plot by the rivals of Mr Aquino, who is leading in popularity surveys, to sully his name by linking it to a crime suspect.

The news conference sparked condemnation and fueled accusations that the current government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is favouring the powerful Ampatuan clan, which is suspected of plotting and carrying out the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people.

'We condemn this in the strongest terms, this is so callous,' said Harry Roque, lawyer of the slain journalists. 'This is another indication that we cannot get justice under this administration.' The massacre was unprecedented in a country known for election violence and political killings that have claimed hundreds of lives in the past decade. Among the victims were more than 30 journalists and their staff - the deadliest known attack on media workers in the world. The killings elevated the Philippines to the top of a list of the world's most dangerous places for reporters.
Posted by: Fred 2010-04-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=295058