Soldiers had seized nine assault rifles in two operations in Maguindanao del Sur province on Thursday, February 13.
Army Brig. Gen Donald Gumiran, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Friday, February 14, that a team from the 33rd Infantry Battalion found four M16 rifles and an M14 rifle in a vehicle abandoned in Datu Abdullah Sangki town in Maguindanao del Sur.
Army intelligence operatives and personnel of the Datu Saudi Ampatuan Municipal Police Station said the firearms belonged to a group that wounded in an ambush three barangay officials in Barangay Kaya-Kaya in the municipality earlier on Thursday.
In a report to Gumiran, Col. Edgar Catu of the 601st Brigade said the assault rifles were piled inside a vehicle that five men had used in their escape from Kaya-Kaya, where they ambushed and wounded Barangay Chairman Edris Sangki, his subordinate-councilor Penny Balawagan and their barangay secretary, Abdul Latip.
Gumiran said they are certain that the men who attacked the three barangay officials left their getaway vehicle and their combat weapons when they noticed that soldiers had blocked the entry and exit routes in Barangay Kaya-Kaya after community leaders had reported the bloody incident in the area.
Catu said soldiers and policemen are cooperating in trying to locate the group responsible for the atrocity.
Three more firearms, an M653 and two M14 rifles were found later in the same day by members of the 90th Infantry Battalion in a house in a secluded area in Barangay Kakal in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur.
Villagers had told reporters that the owners of the assault rifles hurriedly escaped when they noticed patrolling soldiers approaching the house they were in from two directions.
The firearms that soldiers had confiscated in the two operations are now in the joint custody of the 601st Infantry Brigade and the 6th ID, whose division headquarters is in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.
The firearms of the suspects in the ambush of three barangay officials in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur are now in military custody. (February 15, 2025)