Government forces start assault on armed groups in Maguindanao

MANILA, Philippines - Full-scale military and police operations commenced yesterday against more than 2,000 armed supporters of the Ampatuan family in Maguindanao.

Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Randolph Cabangbang said government forces had been tasked to hunt down the remaining members of the Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO) who had defied the orders to surrender their arms shortly after the massacre of 57 people in the province last Nov. 23.

The military and police have identified more than 100 members of CVOs as among the gunmen that took part in the carnage.

Cabangbang said the operations are directed against some 2,000 armed supporters of the Ampatuans who had split into three groups.

Authorities on Tuesday deployed airplanes and helicopters to drop leaflets in some areas of the province in the effort to convince the CVOs to surrender under threat of military offensive.

“We dropped leaflets the other day warning them (militiamen) that we will get them and account for their firearms if they refuse to surrender,” Cabangbang said.

He said the military decided to go on the offensive after negotiations for the orderly surrender of the armed militiamen failed.

Cabangbang said the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade would lead the offensive with the regional police Special Action Force.

The police, on the other hand, were able to disarm some 71 militiamen identified with Buluan town Mayor Ibrahim Jong Mangudadatu, whose family is a political rival of the Ampatuans.

Mangudadatu said he was able to convince the militiamen to surrender their arms to assist the government in its campaign against private armies.

The combined offensive began just after government troops seized more high-powered firearms, thousands of ammunition and rocket warheads from a warehouse owned by the Ampatuans in the provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak.

Lawmen also uncovered an arms cache inside the compound of the Office of the Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Cotabato City.

Among the items seized were nine M-16 rifles, five M203 grenade launchers, five M-14 rifles, an M60 machine gun and several rounds of ammunition.

Task Force commander Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Kho said the weapons were hidden in a septic tank.

According to Kho, the weapons were kept by a certain Macapagal Kamendan, the chief of the security force of the Ampatuans.

Kho said a logbook was also discovered detailing the names of some 29 CVOs hired by the Ampatuans.

“We are trying to hunt down now those people especially Kamendan and we are looking for the possibility that they were among the gunmen that took part in the massacre,” he said. –With Rose Tamayo-Tesoro, Jose Rodel Clapano