Maguindanao looting to prolong state of emergency

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang said yesterday the state of emergency in Maguindanao would continue as long as looting and other criminal activities continue in the province.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Gary Olivar said the looting and ransacking of local government offices at the provincial capitol of Shariff Aguak highlighted the need to continue the state of emergency.

After President Arroyo lifted martial law in Maguindanao on Dec. 12, Olivar said the National Security Council recommended continuing the state of emergency in the province.

Olivar said the looting of the provincial capitol, as well as the reported presence of marauding armed groups, justified the retention of the state of emergency in Maguindanao.

“I would imagine that the authorities have a preferred timetable to lift the state of emergency but as long as conditions warrant it on the ground, for the sake of our people who live there, that state of emergency will continue for as long as it’s needed... especially if they continue to ask for it,” Olivar said.

Local officials in Maguindanao urged the police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to identify the group behind the harassment of several villages in the province.

Local officials said unidentified gunmen had been harassing several villages, robbing houses and local government offices even in the presence of government troops.

Education officials in the province claimed students have been telling their teachers about armed men in “military uniforms” roaming around and extorting money and food from the villagers.

Unidentified gunmen also twice attempted to scale some of the mansions owned by the Ampatuans.

Another group also torched seven farmhouses of workers of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao acting governor Ansarudin Adiong has ordered the regional police to look into the reported activities of unidentified gunmen in Shariff Aguak and in the adjoining towns of Ampatuan and Mamasapano.

Police could not say if the gunmen are followers of the Ampatuans or Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas.

Olivar said the looting incidents should only be treated as such for the moment because no evidence has emerged to support other scenarios.

Olivar noted claims that some looting was done to cover up the alleged poll fraud committed in the province in the 2004 elections.

However, Olivar said these reports should be treated as mere speculation.

“Until we see any evidence behind this, (we are just) entertaining speculations and (these) remain as speculations,” Olivar said.

“If there’s any evidence clearly this ought to be investigated. But as I said, absent of evidence, that’s entertainment,” he added.

With the state of emergency in place, the military and police would maintain a strong presence in the province to prevent any incidents of lawless violence.

Ironically, the looting took place in the provincial capitol under the noses of the military and policemen guarding the area.

The police and the military, under the state of emergency, are still tasked to search for firearms in the homes of Ampatuan family members suspected of involvement in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people in the province.

But a renewed search by authorities of the mansion owned by the Ampatuans in Davao City yielded no arms cache inside.

Although operatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Intelligence Group were able to secure another search warrant, they were surprised with the absence of any weapons or ammunition at the mansion owned by the Ampatuans in Juna Subdivision.

The police searched the entire 2,705-square meter mansion, including the four steel vaults that reportedly contained high-powered firearms.

The mansion is owned Hadja Bai Laila Uy Ampatuan of Poblacion Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao, the first wife of Ampatuan Sr.

The same mansion was first searched last Dec. 5 along with the family’s two other mansions in Marfori Village and Nova Tierra Subdivision.

However, the renewed search Wednesday night yielded no firearms, and two of the four vaults could not be found.

NBI officials in Davao said they had asked the courts to grant their petitions to search the 11 mansions owned by the Ampatuans in the city but were only allowed to search three.

The PNP and the Commission of Human Rights (CHR), on the other hand, are set to investigate reports of two mass graves in Shariff Aguak and Datu Piang.

Joint Task Force 12-Alpha commander Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu said CHR chair Leila de Lima would lead the investigation and excavation of the so-called killing fields in the two towns where 800 people were said to have been summarily executed and buried.

Khu said their first investigation would be on the mass grave located in the middle of a coconut plantation near the police provincial headquarters in Shariff Aguak.

Khu said they have taken into account the testimony of an MILF guerrilla who claimed to have survived the killings.

The MILF rebel said most of the victims had been buried alive while some of them were killed and cut into pieces with a chainsaw.

Khu said some of the witnesses had tagged Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. for the mass graves.

Ampatuan Jr. is facing multiple murder charges over the massacre of 57 people in the province last Nov.23. - With John Unson, Edith Regalado, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro