Police trace owners of guns in Zambo siege

ZAMBOANGA CITY - The Philippine National Police (PNP) has traced owners of some of the firearms that its personnel recovered during the mopping up operations in the city after the three-week siege by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, spokesman and chief of the Firearms and Explosives Security Guards Section (FESAGS) of the Police Regional Office 9 (PRO), said they have traced at least 5 owners of recovered firearms.

Huesca said the three of the owners are private individuals and the two other owners registered their firearms at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezo City.

He said the private individuals are residents of Pangasinan, Dipolog City in Zamboanga del Norte and Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur and a security guard based in this city.

Security forces have recovered more than 300 firearms at the height of the siege and clearing operations after the three-week standoff in this city last September.

Huesca said that the police may get good leads in its ongoing investigation to determine the identities of the individuals involved in the siege, which was instigated by MNLF founding chairman Nur Misuari.

Regional police director Chief Superintendent Juanito Vaño has ordered the investigating team to also focus on the people who supported the MNLF in the siege, including those who may have funded and those who provided war materials to the rebel group.

The goverment has filed charges against nearly 300 MNLF rebels for the Zamboanga siege. Twelve of those charged, includingMisuari and Ustadz Habier Malik, remained at large.

There are claims that Misuari has already slipped out of the country and was attending the Organization of Islamic Conference meeting in West Africa.

The military and the police believe that Malik was among those killed by troops while attempting to recover the areas occupied by the MNLF rebels in the city.