Manila, December 06: Soldiers using sniffer dogs and shovels dug up rifles, machineguns and hundreds of crates of ammunition at a farm owned by a powerful political clan linked to a massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines, officials said on Sunday.
It was the largest haul in four days of searches in several private properties of the Ampatuan family who have ruled for nearly a decade in Muslim-dominated Maguindanao.
Troops dug around the mango orchard owned by Maguindanao’s former governor, a close ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and father of a local mayor who is the main suspect in the gruesome deaths of members of a rival political clan, lawyers, journalists, and civilians on Nov. 23.
The killings raised fears next year’s elections would be bloody and violent, but the tension is so far confined to some parts of Maguindanao, where Arroyo imposed martial law late on Friday to stymie reported rebellion plans of groups loyal to the Ampatuans.
The martial law order was officially announced on Saturday.
“We’ve been getting a lot of information from people who want to help us in our search for guns that may have been used in the murders,” Colonel Leo Ferrer, brigade commander, told reporters.
Businesses and marketplaces were closed and streets were empty in Maguindanao province on Sunday, while civilians started to flee their homes and farms due to fears 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 Lieutenant General Raymundo Ferrer, Maguindanao military commander who took over as governor. He said arrests and house searches would only be done on those suspected to be involved in the massacre.
Nearly 40 assault rifles, three machineguns and hundreds of crates of ammunition were dug on Sunday in tarpaulin-covered shallow pits at the farm near Shariff Aguak town on the southern island of Mindanao, Ferrer said.
Hours after the declaration of martial law, authorities found 330 boxes of bullets, three Armalite rifles, an armoured vehicle, two army vehicles and three police cars at a grains warehouse owned by the Ampatuans in another part of Shariff Aguak.
Andal Ampatuan Jr, now in custody, is suspected to have orchestrated the attack on members of a rival political clan on their way to file the candidacy of one of their leaders for elections next year. About 30 local journalists and two lawyers in the convoy were among the dead.
—Agencies