A militant party-list Wednesday took exception to the announcement reportedly made by Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., naming it as one of the party-list groups he is considering to support in the May elections.

In a statement, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano claimed that Ampatuan’s move is apparently designed to “demonize” his group. “The Ampatuans handler, Mrs. Arroyo and her cabal of military forces, is using a demon to demonize progressive party list groups,” he alleged.

He accused the Arroyo administration of squeezing the most out of the Ampatuans to sow massive disinformation, blatant lies, and chaos in the elections in its attempt to sabotage the polls and subvert the people’s will anew.

“The truth is, the Ampatuans who maintain a batallion of private security force and armed civilian volunteers (CVOs), is already represented by the Gen. Jovito Palparan’s Bantay party-list and is now aiming to expand through Mikey Arroyo’s Ang Galing Pinoy party list,” Mariano alleged.

“Like Mrs. Arroyo, Palace-backed party-list groups benefited overwhelmingly in the 2004 and 2007 polls, in fact even surpassing the total number of registered voters in Maguindanao courtesy of the Ampatuans,” he further alleged.

Earlier on, Ampatuan said they had already told all their supporters in Maguindanao to support the presidential bid of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Apart from Aquino, he added, the Ampatuans are also endorsing his running mate Mar Roxas, senatorial candidates Juan Ponce Enrile, Tito Sotto, Miriam Santiago, Adel Tamano, Risa Hontiveros, Pia Cayetano, Sergio Osmena III and Ralph Recto. He said that other than Anakpawis, Gabriela and TUCP are also in his choices of the party-list group to support.