600 guns of Ampatuan clan still missing

MANILA, Philippines - Police are still looking for 600 more firearms supposedly in possession of the Ampatuans, an influential clan in Maguindanao province.

Sources said the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are still trying to account for at least 600 assorted firearms registered to the Ampatuans and their supporters.

Joint police and military authorities have so far unearthed some 1,163 assorted firearms and 1.1 million assorted ammunition during raids in and around properties identified with the Ampatuans after the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 57 persons, 32 of them members of media.

Authorities said the firearms range from ordinary pistols to mortars to powerful 90-mm recoilless rifles.

To date, 60 persons are locked up in Metro Manila District Jail in Taguig City, six of them surnamed Ampatuan – Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Jr., Andal Sr., former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy, acting Maguindanao Gov. Sajid, Akmad and Anwar.

The other accused in the multiple murder charges now pending before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, include 49 policemen who were assigned in Maguindanao at the time of the massacre. They all denied any knowledge to the killings.

Police are still hunting down civilian volunteers and police officers tagged in the massacre.

Prior to the murder, relatives of then Buluan Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu accompanied by a number of supporters and members of the media were on their way to Shariff Aguak to file his certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao.

Witnesses said over 200 individuals composed of police, military and civilian volunteers headed allegedly by Andal Jr. flagged down the convoy of vehicles and later led them toward a hilly area, where the victims were found buried in three mass graves dug by a backhoe owned by the Maguindanao provincial government.