More arrests, more raids 62 held; another arms cache unearthed

By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer Mindanao

DATU HOFFER AMPATUAN, Maguindanao—Using sniffer dogs and shovels, troops dug up another arms cache on Sunday in a crackdown on suspects in the massacre of 57 people after the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao that has led to 62 arrests.

The seizure of 39 high-powered firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition came a day after police and military units uncovered 340,000 bullets for M-16 assault rifles in a warehouse reportedly owned by the Ampatuan clan, the main suspects in the Nov. 23 bloodbath, in nearby Mamasapano town.

Army and police units also swooped down on three opulent mansions of the Ampatuan family in Davao City Sunday, Maj. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, vice chief of staff for operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said in a briefing in Manila.

There were no arrests made or contraband confiscated in the raids on the Ampatuan mansions.

“We’re not picking our targets at random,” Pangilinan said, adding that troops were moving swiftly to neutralize the 4,000-member civilian militia force of the Ampatuans.

“These forces are not only a threat to the public safety and security of the province, they are also capable of committing terrorism, such as bombings, arson and attacks on our convoys,” he said, adding authorities have disarmed only about 400 of the militia group.

Philippine National Police Director Andres Caro said at the Malacañang briefing that 62 suspects in the massacre had been arrested since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued her martial law proclamation on Friday.

Those detained on Saturday included Andal Ampatuan Sr., the family patriarch and three-time governor of the province, and four of his sons—the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the acting governor of Maguindanao, its vice governor and the mayor of the capital town of Shariff Aguak.

The alleged mastermind, Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town, surrendered three days after the massacre and is detained at the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila.

Mango farm yields arms

Lt. Col. Michael Samson, spokesperson of the Maguindanao military unit, said at Datu Hoffer Ampatuan town that a tip by a resident led to the buried armaments at a mango farm in Barangay Limponga.

Samson told reporters that investigators were verifying information that the two-hectare farm is owned by the elder Ampatuan, one of Ms Arroyo’s closest political allies.

“Almost 80 percent of our province is owned by the Ampatuans. I’m sure even the policemen know that for a fact,” a middle-aged woman said.

Recovered from the area were a 50-cal. machine gun, 11 M-16 rifles, 15 M-14 rifles, three Garand rifles, two automatic rifles, two M203 grenade rifles, two M60 and M50 sub-machine guns, a 30-cal. rifle and two carbines.

The latest find was unearthed from a four-foot deep digging just 20 meters away from a nipa hut of the farm caretaker, who has disappeared.

Various types of ammo for different types of assault rifles were placed in three sacks and at least 10 boxes of wooden and metal boxes.

A nearby one-foot hole also yielded a wooden box containing at least 1,000 rounds for M-16 rifles.

Bullet boxes marked ‘DND’

The boxes of bullets were marked “Government Arsenal DND (Department of National Defense).”

The ammunition and some of the long firearms showed that they were manufactured by Arms Corp. of the Philippines, a private weapons company that exclusively manufactures bullets and guns for state security agencies.

Fenced by metal barb wires, the mango plantation lies beside a dirt road connecting the province capital, Shariff Aguak, to Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, a newly created town named after Ampatuan’s murdered son.

The farm is less than a kilometer away from the provincial police headquarters in Camp Akilan Ampatuan.

As in last Thursday’s recovery of firearms buried in a vacant lot near Ampatuan’s mansion, nobody was arrested in Sunday’s operations.

Col. Leo Ferrer, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Battalion, said the farm’s caretaker fled the area moments before government troopers arrived.

Ballistic tests

Colonel Ferrer said that ballistic tests would be conducted to determine if the bullets match the shells recovered at the site where an election convoy of gubernatorial candidate Esmael Mangudadatu and his supporters were either gunned down or hacked to death.

The dead included the wife of Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, his two sisters and 30 media people. It was the largest single loss of lives for journalists anywhere in the world. They were to cover the filing of Mangudadatu’s candidacy in the May elections.

Ferrer said the recovery of the firearms might also prompt the filing of additional criminal charges against the elder Ampatuan if it were established that he owned the farm.

Using metal detectors and a bomb-sniffing dog, members of the Army’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team scoured the plantation for other firearms.

“We will continue the search for other firearms,” said Samson.

Samson said troops would also look for a certain Kamilon, a policeman who purportedly owned the police uniform seized inside one of the ammo boxes.

‘High-value targets’

Authorities have taken into custody five “high-value targets” who allegedly had direct participation in the massacre, said a police intelligence official who asked not to be named because of the nature of his work.

“They were close-in security escorts of the family. We also received information that they were actually relatives of the Ampatuans,” the official said.

“Our information revealed that they directly participated in the crime,” he added.

Ferrer said police had “invited for questioning” more than 40 persons, some of them women.

“Some of them may have knowledge of the massacre. But if they are cleared by our police investigators, we will release them, immediately,” he said.

Ferrer belied reports that soldiers were randomly storming houses of residents in the province.

“If we accost some individuals or conduct search operations in residential areas, they were based on reliable information given to us. They are not done arbitrarily,” the Army commander said.

He dismissed as “misinformation” the text messages claiming that a number of residents in Shariff Aguak fled after soldiers swooped on their houses, arrested male members of the household and took their valuables.

Empty streets

Businesses and marketplaces were closed and streets were empty in Maguindanao Sunday, while civilians started to flee their homes and farms in fear violence may erupt soon.

“I advise you to stay put and be calm or go about your daily chores. Should our soldiers commit abuses, they will be relieved, investigated and punished,” said Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, Maguindanao military commander who has taken over as governor.

He said arrests and house searches would only be done on those suspected to be involved in the massacre. With reports from Jocelyn R. Uy, Christian V. Esguerra, Jeffrey M. Tupas and Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao, Reuters, Associated Press

Where is the President?’

Why isn’t she here? It’s history By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Leila Salaverria, Christine Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:15:00 12/10/2009

MANILA, Philippines—“Where is the President?”

Lawmakers Wednesday cited the glaring absence of the commander in chief, who declared martial law in Maguindanao province, during the first joint session of Congress.

The session was delayed by almost an hour due to debates on the absence of the President, her defense secretary and the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“Why is she not here? This is history. Does she not have the courtesy at all to report in person? We thought that with the President declaring martial law, the President herself should be here to explain to us,” asked Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, his voice rising.

Together with fellow Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, Dilangalen said that they were the only lawmakers who were personally affected by Presidential Proclamation No. 1959.

Ms Arroyo issued the proclamation on Friday night to suppress a “rebellion in the offing” of disparate armed groups loyal to the Ampatuan clan, accused of masterminding the Nov. 23 killing of 57 people in Maguindanao.

Since Friday’s proclamation read by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Ms Arroyo has not spoken one word about exercising her extraordinary martial law powers. She also has yet to face the press.

Congress may revoke or support the martial law proclamation by a simple majority vote (set at 147) of the joint session.

The first joint session was suspended at 10:50 Wednesday night and would resume at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo was the sixth and last to ask questions on the first day. He said rebellion is hard to prove, and it takes long to do so as well. He knows, since he has been charged with it twice.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. concurred with Dilangalen’s stand that Ms Arroyo should have given Congress the “courtesy” to face lawmakers.

But Speaker Prospero Nograles and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the President was not compelled to attend the joint session.

Enrile and Nograles said the President had complied with the constitutional requirement with the submission of her report to Congress 48 hours after her declaration on Dec. 4 at 9 p.m.

Pimentel, however, pointed out that the issue was not the submission of the report but the President’s personal explanation of why she implemented it.

It was also pointed out that the report was not signed by Ms Arroyo but by Ermita.

Remedios Poblador

The President was not at the joint session but her most trusted girl Friday was there. Remedios Poblador, an undersecretary of the presidential legislative office, was seen on the main stage along with Trade Secretary Peter Favila.

Poblador entered and exited through the right access way across from the seats of Nograles and Enrile.

Things got heated initially when Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. rose to chastise Dilangalen for “forum shopping.”

“The gentleman who was so insistent on the physical and personal presence of the President has filed a petition I suppose for the revocation of martial law in the Supreme Court.”

Several petitions are pending before the Supreme Court insisting that Ms Arroyo violated the Constitution when she declared martial law because there was no actual rebellion or invasion, the only grounds allowed under the Constitution.

After a 30-minute break, Locsin withdrew his remarks.

An Arroyo ally, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, grilled administration officials as he pointed out that the martial law proclamation may be standing on essentially nonexistent ground.

“If you review the report given to us by (Police) Director (Andres) Caro, there is no mention whatsoever that prior to Dec. 4 there was public uprising and armed uprising against the government. So that could negate the factual basis of the declaration of martial law, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus,” Lagman said.

Lagman noted that the presence of armed groups could indicate lawless violence, but this was not equal to a rebellion.

Responding to Lagman, Ermita was forced to acknowledge that there was no actual rebellion, but maintained that all signs point to it.

“You may be correct there is no actual rebellion going on. However, all the indications that rebellion is being committed or happening in the ground is [in] the presence of armed groups that prevent authorities from carrying out [their] duty and effecting the arrest despite the testimonies of witnesses,” Ermita said.

Sedition, not rebellion

Lagman also pressed Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera to cite her factual basis for saying there was an actual rebellion instead of a looming one.

Devanadera said she arrived at the conclusion based on information she received that heavily armed groups had taken strategic positions within Maguindanao and various camps controlled by the Ampatuans.

These actions, she added, prevented the implementation and enforcement of laws and threatened public safety.

But Lagman appeared unconvinced and pointed out that even the nonfunctioning of civil authorities in Maguindanao only indicated sedition and not rebellion.

Each chamber was given 10 hours for questioning of resource persons from the executive branch, and it is up to its members how to budget their time.

Besides Ermita and Devanadera, other ranking officials present were Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Defense Undersecretary Antonio Santos and Lt. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang, armed forces vice chief of staff.

Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales and Gen. Victor Ibrado, armed forces chief of staff, were also invited but Gonzales was in Singapore. Ibrado arrived later in the evening.

At 6:31 p.m., the Senate and the House took turns asking questions.

Sen. Benigno Aquino III was the first one recognized to inquire. But his questioning was delayed for nearly 15 minutes because of various parliamentary inquiries.

Five reports

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said Congress had received five reports about martial law in Maguindanao, and wanted to know which of these would be the basis for the lawmakers’ interpellation.

Administration officials insisted that there was an “ongoing rebellion” in Maguindanao.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago urged Ms Arroyo to lift her proclamation “as soon as possible” because it was likely the Palace would lose its case before the Supreme Court.

Santiago said the high court was likely to decide on the legality of Proclamation No. 1959 even before the joint session of Congress could come up with a decision to either revoke or support it.

Santiago, designated to be the third senator who can ask questions, made the call through the media.

The senator, who is for the revocation of the proclamation, said Malacañang was likely to lose in the high court because the declaration had no legal basis.

She reiterated that there was no actual rebellion in Maguindanao to justify the imposition of martial law.