Senate set to conduct inquiry on firearms seized from Ampatuan clan

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate is set to conduct investigations on the large cache of firearms seized by authorities in areas near the mansions of the Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao.

Senators Rodolfo Biazon, Antonio Trillanes IV and Richard Gordon have filed separate resolutions calling on the proper committees to look into the confiscation.

“This discovery of weapons and ammunition in or near the residences of the Ampatuans, or in properties owned by them, will further cause demoralization in the ranks of the military and the police,” said Biazon, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security.

Combined elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) recovered yesterday more than a thousand assault rifles and several .50 caliber heavy machine guns buried near the mansion of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.

“As of last count, the government has already recovered more than 1,500 assorted long firearms and short arms and about 500,000 bullets for various calibers,” Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer of the Eastern Mindanao Command said.

In filing the two-page Senate Resolution 1811, Biazon, a former AFP chief of staff, said the weapons and ammunitions that had military and police markings should only be in the possession of and for the sole use of the military and the police and their discovery in the hands of civilians is a serious breach of national security.

He said the discovery of the firearms and ammunition bolstered earlier claims by rebel soldiers that a “treasonous and illegal sale of weapons” exists.

Trillanes said he received information in the past that 4,000 high-powered firearms were distributed by the government to private groups in the run-up to the May 2007 elections.

The detained senator alleged that the firearms were part of the political accommodation and/or payback to powerful local officials in exchange for their support for the administration.

“This places the burden of responsibility for the Maguindanao massacre at the doorstep of Malacañang. Indeed this tragedy is clearly self-inflicted and the Frankenstein monster that is now haunting this administration is a product of its own indiscretion,” Trillanes said in his resolution.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said he will conduct an investigation to determine the source of the high-powered firearms.

“The committee would look into allegations or speculations that government firearms are being sold or even given by the government to private armies,” he said.

Who sold firearms?

The committee will invite officials of the Commission on Audit (COA), Department of National Defense (DND), PNP, and the AFP as resource persons.

The raids on the Ampatuan estates conducted by the military and police personnel resulted in the recovery of anti-tank recoilless rifles, mortars, machine guns, rifles and pistols, and thousands of rounds of ammunition enough to arm a battalion.

“We will ask the COA to audit the DND and PNP to make sure that weapons and firearms purchased by our military and police departments are all accounted for,” Gordon said.

Former defense secretary Gibert Teodoro, meanwhile, called for an inquiry to find out how government-owned weapons and ammunitions found their way into the private arsenal of the Ampatuans.

“The government must get to the bottom of this case immediately and punish those who are responsible. Selling guns and other military equipment for personal gain is a grave offense especially if these are the very same weapons used to kill innocent civilians,” Teodoro said.

Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, AFP Eastern Mindanao Command chief who has been designated as martial law administrator in Maguindanao, said the recovered firearms were just “a tip of the iceberg.”

Meanwhile, the alleged keeper of dozens of firearms used in the Nov. 23 massacre has been spotted at Lebak, Sultan Kudarat Sunday, Army and police intelligence sources said.

Senior Inspector Saudi Mokamad, who has been absent without official leave since he was tagged as one of the suspects in the carnage, is related to big Moro clans in the adjoining towns of Lebak and Kalamansig, both in Sultan Kudarat.

Mokamad is known among residents here as “an adopted brother” of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., the principal suspect in the Maguindanao carnage.

Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu, chief of the police-led anti-crime Task Force 12 Alpha, said they have directed the municipal police chiefs of Lebak and Kalamansig to launch a manhunt for Mokamad.

He was last seen leaving Shariff Aguak a day after the massacre on board a vehicle loaded with sacks believed to contain the rifles used by the gunmen in the atrocity.

Villagers said the sacks were filled with firearms neatly piled on a pickup truck that left the town in the direction of Cotabato City.

Khu said police and Army intelligence agents are now validating stories that Mokamad has sought sanctuary in a recognized territory of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) at the border of Lebak and Kalamansig.

Mokamad, according to members of the provincial peace and order council in Sultan Kudarat, is related to a key MNLF leader in the province.

As this developed, Verzosa ordered the recall of patrol cars and the inventory of assorted firearms issued to the Maguindanao police which are either used for personal purposes or loaned to politicians.

As of yesterday, there were reports that at least 35 patrol cars are already in the custody of the Maguindanao police while a third of the 1,200 assorted firearms issued to the local police were still missing. – With reports from John Unson, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro, Edith Regalado, Mike Frialde, Jaime Laude