MARAWI CITY – The Muslim Alliance for Noynoy Aquino (MANA) said it is supporting not only the presidential bid of the senator from Tarlac but also his running-mate, Liberal Party (LP) president and vice presidential aspirant Senator Mar Roxas.

Lawyer Paisalin P. Tago, MANA founding president, however, admitted that their group members are given liberty to campaign or not for the senatorial slate of the LP, saying their focus is for aspirants to the Senate who would provide the Muslim Filipinos a voice in Congress.

“While our group sounds exclusive for Noynoy, we also definitely go for Senator Mar Roxas,” Tago said, dispelling a spreading notion that the Ilonggo senator does not enjoy support from MANA.

MANA held its 1st general assembly in Metro Manila on Friday evening with a declaration to yield at least two million votes outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the LP standard bearer and his running-mate.

Aurora Corazon “Pinky” Aquino graced MANA’s maiden assembly in behalf her younger brother, the LP presidential bet, who she said could not make it due to his delayed provincial sortie in Cagayan.

She acknowledged MANA as one of the biggest groups rallying his brother’s bid, which has been drawing bandwagons of volunteers across the country including different individuals and sectors that, she said, were even chipping in campaign funds.

Pinky also echoed her brother’s vow to pursue the visions and missions of their parents, the former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and President Corazon C. Aquino, for decent and just governance among all Filipinos including the Muslims’ cry for self-determination.

She sworn in the MANA officers and delivered an extemporaneous message in between sobs after Tago announced that the Muslim group was founded on their strong belief that Noynoy “inherited” his parents’ “big hearts” for the Muslim Filipinos.

Tago said the martyred Ninoy had exposed in the Senate the massacre of young Muslim Filipinos while undergoing secret military training in Bataan to attack purportedly Malaysia, prompting the formation of the separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

He said MANA credits former President Cory for helping get elected two Moro leaders – Mamintal Tamano and Santanina Rasul – in the Senate, naming five Cabinet members, many ambassadors from the Muslim sector, and enshrining in the Constitution a provision for Muslim autonomy.