CLARK FREEPORT Presidential aunt, former Tarlac Gov. Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco expressed yesterday both anger and sadness over the death of 44 policemen who were killed Sunday in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
“Let’s express our heartfelt dismay and our sympathy to the family and close friends of our courageous fallen policemen who died in the service for the country by offering flowers andMass cards at the entrance of Camp Crame,” Cojuangco said in a text message sent to media and friends.
Cojuangco is known for her humanitarian projects and her work among Muslim communities. She had participated in the peace talks with the Moro National Liberation Front. “The whole country mourns the loss of more than 44 precious lives of the elite SAF of the PNP.
We re angry and we are sad on how they were brutally killed,” she also said, urging receivers of her text to pass on her message. Cojuangco, along with her husband former Rep. Jose “Peping Cojuangco,” has been a member of the National Transformation Council (NTC) which at one time called for the resignationof Pres. Aquino.
In August last year,the NTC in Lipa City, headed by Archbishop Ramon Arquelles, issued a declaration saying that “far from preserving and defending the constitution, as he swore to do when he assumed office, the incumbent President Benigno Simeon Aquino has subverted and violated it by corrupting Congress, intimidating the judiciary, taking over the treasury, manipulating the automated voting system, and perverting the constitutional impeachment process.”
It also said the President “has also damaged the moral fabric of Philippine Society by bribing members of Congress not only to impeach and remove a sitting Supreme Court Chief Justice but also to enact a law which disrespects the right to life of human being at the earliest and most vulnerable stages of their lives, in defiance not only of the constitution but above all of the moral law, the customs, culture, and consciences of Filipinos.”
“We further declare that we have lost all trust and confidence in President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and we call upon him to immediately relinquish his position,” the resolution added.
