Gov’t arms, ammo found in Ampatuan homes

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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MANILA, Philippines – The military expressed surprise at how powerful weapons and thousands of bullets supposed to be kept in the government armory ended up virtually in the backyard of the Ampatuan clan.

Wearing bulletproof vests, soldiers and police the other day dug up antitank weapons, assault rifles and machine guns from a vacant lot a few hundred meters from one of the houses of the Ampatuan family—a known political ally of President Macapagal-Arroyo—in Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao province.

Some of the firearms and the boxes of ammunition bore the markings of “Department of National Defense Arsenal,” “PNP [Philippine National Police] Camp Crame,” police said.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, former AFP chief of staff, said he was “aghast” at the find and said he would ask for a Senate investigation next week on who was responsible for giving such a huge arms cache presumably to the Ampatuans.

“Only the military can have this weapon,” he insisted in a phone interview. “Nobody can possess them, except for the military and the police, once in a while.”

PNP chief Jesus Verzosa was taken aback on learning that the recovered firearms included two antitank weapons. He said only government forces were allowed to purchase and carry these kinds of weapons.

“We can estimate that these types of weapons could supply a battalion of soldiers,” Verzosa told reporters in Camp Crame.

Armed Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the 260 boxes of 5.56-mm ammunition that were dug up were exclusively manufactured by the government arsenal in Bataan for the AFP and the PNP and other uniformed personnel.

The discovery of the weapons and ammunition cache came 10 days after gunmen allegedly linked to the Ampatuan family slaughtered 57 people, including dozens of journalists, and followed appeals from around the country and from around the world for Ms Arroyo to crack down on the Ampatuans.

In a follow-up raid Friday, security forces also searched the mansion of Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town, who is facing 25 counts of murder over last week’s slaughter. He is now detained at the National Bureau Investigation in Manila.
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My question is, why are they even surprised? Most provincial governors and mayors have these. What else would they use to supply their private armies? These people should stop feigning ignorance.

So the question is, now that they found these guns, will they be charged for it? Probably not.