Troops hunt massacre suspects inMaguindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  - Some of the suspects in the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre have reportedly been holding out in marshlands at the border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato, police and Army intelligence officials said.

More than 90 suspects in the massacre, touted as the country's worst election-related violence, remain unaccounted for.

The 6th Infantry Division tasked Monday two of its units in North Cotabato, the 7th and 40th Infantry Battalions, to help the provincial police locate the whereabouts of massacre suspects reportedly hiding at marshy areas near Maguindanao.

Policemen arrested Saturday in Midsayap, North Cotabato the alleged operator of the backhoe used in digging the common graves for the 58 people slaughtered Nov. 23, 2009 by gunmen in Salman Hill in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

The suspect, Bong Andal, an ethnic Maguindanaon, was cornered in an entrapment by operatives of the Midsayap municipal police and the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Kapinpilan, Midsayap.

Supt. Joseph Samillano, chief of the Midsayap municipal police, said confidential informants have been telling them that there are massacre suspects hiding at the boundary of Midsayap and Datu Piang town in Maguinidanao.

Andal was arrested just as he was leaving to visit his family in Barangay Kadigasan, also in Midsayap town.  He carried a P250, 000 reward on his head.

Andal is now in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Supt. Leo Quevedo, chief of the CIDG-ARMM, told reporters they will turn over Andal this week to the Quezon City Regional Trial Court that issued the warrant for his arrest.