Maguindanao town officials surrender 10 more firearms

YIELDED FIREARMS --- Mayor Bai Anida Abas-Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, hands over a firearm to Brig. Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army’s 601st Brigade, during the ceremonial turn-over of 10 high-powered loose firearms at the town hall last July 27.In April this year, the town also yielded 17 loose firearms to military authorities (Photo by 6thID / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

SIONGCO, Maguindanao --- Town officials of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao have surrendered 10 loose firearms to the military last July 27.

Datu Saudi Ampatuan MayorBaiAnidaAbas-Dimaukom turned over the high-powered guns to Brig. Gen. DiosdadoCarreon, commander of the Army’s 601st Brigade, and Lt. Col. Alvin Iyog, commander of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, in a ceremony held at the Municipal Hall. 

Capt. Arvin John Encinas, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said the surrendered firearms included two 60-mm. mortar launchers, two sniper rifles, three M203 grenade launchers, one .50-caliber Barrett-type rifle, one .30-caliber machine gun, and an 81-mm mortar launcher.

Last April 24, the town also surrendered 17 loose firearms to the Army.

“The municipality of Datu Saudi has once again proven their support and cooperation to the campaign against loose firearms as this is their fourth  time to hand over unlicensed firearms to the Army,” Brig. Gen.

CirilitoSobejana, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, said in a statement.

The number of assorted loose firearms surrendered to the 6th1D since January has totaled 1,913. 

Man yields gun, hand grenade

In another development, the police arrested a man with a gun at a checkpoint in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, while assorted firearms and explosives were also seized in the houses of his brothers in separate raids last July 24.

Chief Supt. Marcelo Morales, police regional director for Region-12, said arrested at a police checkpoint in PurokMupak, Barangay Tambak, Lambayong, was Roy GuimalMupak for possession of a firearm and explosive.

Seized from Mupak were a .38-caliber revolver with ammunition and a hand grenade.

In separate follow-up operations, police raided the house of Datu Not Mupak but he eluded arrest. Seized from his home were a rifle grenade projectile, a 9-mm improvised machine pistol, and ammunition. 

In another house, lawmen also recovered a fragmentation grenade in the room of MuslimenMupak, another sibling of the suspects, who they said also managed to elude arrest.

“Our fight against criminality continues, even intensified. For as long as there is threat to our peace and security in the region, we will not rest yet, we will conscientiously perform our job,” Morales said in a statement.

Morales added that their primary duty is “to give the people of Soccsksargen their right to have a peaceful living, and that is through giving teeth to the law.” (Noel Punzalan& Edwin Fernandez, PNA– Cotabato / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)