MANILA, Philippines—Where is the stockpile of 1,500 high-powered firearms seized from the Ampatuan clan?
Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo on Thursday ordered top Philippine National Police officials to conduct a new inventory of all the weapons and ammunition confiscated by authorities from the Ampatuans following the Maguindanao massacre on Nov. 23, 2009.
Members of the powerful clan led by Andal Ampatuan Sr., as well as policemen and militiamen controlled by them, are accused of perpetrating the massacre of at least 57 people, including at least 30 media workers, in what is believed to be the worst election-related violence in Philippine history.
In a statement, Robredo said he had directed PNP Director General Raul Bacalzo and Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to submit an updated report on the whereabouts of the firearms cache.
“We should also not lose sight of the Ampatuan guns. We need … an update on the accounting, documentation and forensic examination on the seized firearms to determine their original source and which of them were used in the mass murder,” Robredo said.
‘Intact’ in ARMM
Asked to comment, PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz said the public could rest assured that the firearms were intact and under the protection of the CIDG in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“Definitely, the stockpile is intact. The custodians will have a lot to answer for otherwise,” Cruz said by phone.
He said the disposition of the weapons and ammunition would be up to the court hearing of the Maguindanao massacre case.
Robredo said he had not seen or heard reports on what the CIDG and the National Bureau of Investigation had done to determine how and from whom the Ampatuans had acquired the firearms.
He said the serial numbers and other means of identifying the firearms and ammunition would indicate when they were issued, to whom, the accountable supply officer and the dealer.
Robredo also said that given the “extensive forensic probe” conducted by the PNP’s scene-of-the-crime operatives, “particularly … of the slugs and shells used in the mass murder, [the] office should have determined by now who are the killers and the arms they used in the massacre.”
APCs and such
Days after the massacre, a police-military team raided the Ampatuans’ mansions and houses in Maguindanao and other parts of Mindanao.
In one raid, the CIDG and NBI seized military-type, locally assembled armored personnel carriers mounted with .30-caliber machine guns and a military Humvee said to be owned by Ampatuan Sr.
According to reports, the raiders also confiscated 300 mortar shells and more than 60,000 5.56 ammunition in over a dozen metal boxes with DND (Department of National Defense) Arsenal markings.
The reports said such heavy materiel would be enough to arm a battalion.