Police are looking into a fire that burned down 7 houses at an Ampatuan-owned mango farm in Datu Hoffer town in Maguindanao.
At past 7 p.m. on Tuesday, authorities noticed the fire in the mango farm owned by the Ampatuan clan in Barangay Limpongo, meters away from Datu Hoffer police station.
The incident took place after police and representatives from the Commission on Human Rights discovered possible grave sites at the mango farm. They said the farm may have served as a mass grave in 2001.
Police said some of the gutted houses were owned by the caretakers of the mango farm.
Some of the residents said armed men possibly angry at the Ampatuans torched their houses. Police, however, said they did not see any suspicious armed group prior to the incident.
The residents said they were able to see the people behind the torching of houses, but they are not certain of their identities.
Authorites have yet to determine the motive behind the incident.
Meanwhile, a police team raided the staff house of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., the clan's patriarch, in Davao City around 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Armed with a search warrant issued by the Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 11, police breached the staff house and looked for several firearms allegedly hidden in vaults.
Policemen, however, only found 2 empty vaults inside the staff house.
The raid was conducted as part of the government's crackdown on the Ampatuan clan's armories in various parts of Mindanao.
The former governor has been charged by police for his alleged involvement in a rebellion and the massacre.
Ampatuan Sr.'s sons, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., suspended Maguindanao governor Sajid Ampatuan and suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan have been arrested and brought to different detention facilities. With reports from Lora Mae Andor, ABS-CBN Central Mindanao and ANC News@8
No comments:
Post a Comment