Eastmincom assures Maguindanao of proper Martial Law enforcement

3rd arms cache found at warehouse of Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.

DAVAO CITY – The commander of the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command assured residents of Maguindanao of proper administration of the enforcement of military rule, as government forces found a third arms cache on Saturday stacked at the warehouse owned by the father of the detained mayor accused in the massacre of civilians last month.

Lt. Gen. Raymundo B. Ferrer, commander of the Eastmincom said on December 6 that that “the military administering the rule of Martial Law in Maguindanao assures everyone that there will be no indiscriminate searches and arrests and only those having to do with the massacre will be arrested and their house searched”.

“I advise you to stay put and be calm or go about your daily chores,” he said.

He said that should our soldiers commit abuses, they will be relieved, investigated and punished. I will not tolerate abuses.”

The assurance came after Leila de Lima, chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights urged Filipinos to pressure Congress against granting Malacanang the authority to continue enforcing Martial Law in Maguindanao, saying that this second move to declare a province under Martial Law was ominous”.

“Baka kakalat na iyan. Never again to Martial Law,” she assured the 2nd Mindanao Human Rights Summit held here Saturday.

On Saturday, December 5, meantime, Army and police agents searched a warehouse of Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. located near the provincial jail in Shariff Kabungsuan after being tipped of possible firearms being hidden there.

At 3:15 pm, operatives found one military humvee, one improvised armoured vehicle and several luxury vehicles. Shortly after, they found at the back of the warehouse three Elisco M16 rifles and three bandoliers. At 4:45 pm, they also discovered ammunitions placed in one of the trucks parked inside. The vehicle yielded a total of 330 boxes of ammunition for a caliber 5.56 firearm with a marking of Arms Corp. of the Philippines (Armscor)

The stack of weapons and vehicles was the third arms cache discovered within three days. On Thursday, an arms cache as found in two shallow pits covered by piles of gravel at Barrio Tres, Poblacion, Sharif Aguak, the capital town.

Found were powerful weapons such as two anti tank bazookas, four 60mm mortar, two 81mm mortar, one 90 recoilless rifle, or bazooka and other foreign-made weapons. One of the weapons, ammunitions still in several boxes for M16 rifles have Armscor markings on them.

The third set of arms were found at the residence of the detailed Mayor Andal Amputan Jr., and have markings of the DND, initials of the Department of National Defense.