Ban on guns for ARMM registration nets rifle

PARANG, Maguindanao—In a region notorious for armed political violence, Army soldiers enforcing a total gun ban ahead of voter registration have so far seized only one M-14 rifle.

Col. Cesar Marlon Yadao, commanding officer of the 51st Infantry Battalion, said his men seized the rifle from a man involved in a family feud in Pualas, Lanao del Sur, early this week.

Yadao said soldiers were helping police enforce the gun ban in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The general registration of voters in ARMM, which President Aquino ordered in an attempt to stop decades of electoral fraud in the region, will start on Monday.

Police suspended all permits to carry firearms in preparation

for the registration.

Supt. Junival Ngolab, community relations head of the ARMM police, said police were setting up more checkpoints in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to enforce the gun ban. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao