Escaped Ampatuan ally captured in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 24, 2010) – Philippine authorities captured Wednesday a former provincial police chief accused of illegally selling weapons to members of a political clan implicated in the brutal slayings of 57 people last year in Mindanao.

Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluña, the regional police chief, said they captured Piang Adam in Davao City. Adam previously headed the police force in Maguindanao province where the massacre occurred.

“Long surveillance and intelligence operations led to the capture of Piang Adam, who is also facing charges of illegal possession. He is now under our custody,” Cataluña told the Mindanao Examiner.

Adam was first arrested in December last year on charges of illegal possession of firearms in his home in Sultan Kudarat, but escaped in February.

Police said he is also facing other criminal charges, including falsification of public documents.

Adam is an ally of jailed Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr, the clan’s patriarch, who was implicated in the November 23 massacre of 57 people, among them were at least 32 journalists accompanying the political caravan of rival Esmael Mangudadatu, the vice mayor of Buluan town.

Other accused in the slayings were his sons - Zaldy Ampatuan, the regional governor of the Muslim autonomous region; Andal Ampatuan, the mayor of Datu Unsay town and other clan members who are also in jail. (Mindanao Examiner)