Guns seized from bodyguards of Ampatuan's mayor-wife

CAMP S.K. PENDATUN, Maguindanao, Philippines – Police confiscated the other day eight high-powered firearms from the bodyguards of the mayor-wife of detained Maguindanao massacre suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. for lack of authority to carry them.

Police now have custody of the firearms seized from the eight security aides of Reshal Ampatuan, mayor of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao and the first of Ampatuan’s two wives.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director, said the confiscated guns – six 9-mm MP-5 submachineguns and two M-16 assault rifles – were all registered under the name of a private security agency operating in Central Mindanao.

Latag said police responded to a complaint that Mayor Ampatuan’s followers were removing streamers around the Datu Unsay town hall that bore messages denouncing alleged irregularities during the recent barangay elections.

A police team sent to verify the commotion that ensued found the mayor’s security men, clad in blue uniforms, roaming around the town hall and brandishing their firearms, but when checked, they were found to have no authority to carry the guns.

Police also found the permit to operate of the security firm employing Ampatuan’s escorts already expired last Jan. 6.

The Datu Unsay municipal government hired the bodyguards under an allegedly costly contract with the security company.

Peace activists in Maguindanao have prodded the Commission on Audit to investigate where the mayor got the money to pay for the security contract.

Latag said 33 long magazines and seven short magazines loaded with live ammunition were confiscated along with the nine firearms.

Also seized were nine long magazines and one short magazine for caliber 5.56 loaded with live ammunition.

Police were looking into the implications of Mayor Ampatuan having contracted a private security firm to provide her with bodyguards as Maguindanao is still under a state of emergency.

Malacañang declared the state of emergency following the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 57 people by armed men allegedly led by Mayor Ampatuan’s detained husband.