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)

Police search for escaped Ampatuan ally in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 17, 2010) – Police launched a manhunt Wednesday to track down a former cop who an ally of a powerful political clan implicated in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province after he escaped from jail in the southern Philippines.

Police forces were hunting down Piang Adam who escaped from the Sultan Kudarat provincial jail.

Adam, who was the former chief of police of Maguindanao province, was arrested in December after security forces seized from his house about a dozen automatic rifles in Sultan Kudarat after President Gloria Arroyo declared martial law in the province as well as in Maguindanao, after the brutal murders in November 23 of 57 people, including at least 31 journalists.

It was unknown how Adam was able to escaped, but police said it is investigating four prison guards.

“We are planning to detail a team of PNP personnel in the jail to prevent escape of prisoners,” said regional police chief Josefino Cataluna.

PNP is the acronym of the Philippine National Police.

Adam was last seen inside his prison cell on Tuesday afternoon and was reported missing the next morning. Several policemen also linked to the murders are also detained in the jail.

Datu unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. was arrested after the massacre. He was accused of leading more than 100 gunmen in the gruesome murders of the 57 people in Maguindanao’s Ampatuan town.

Among those killed in the attack was the wife of Buluan town vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, Ampatuan’s rival.

Ampatuan’s father and namesake, and brothers and other clan members were also arrested and are facing multiple murder charges in connection with the killings. The Ampatuans all denied involvement in the murders.

Authorities recovered more than a thousand assorted light artillery and heavy infantry weapons and hundreds of thousands of munitions in the town after President Gloria Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao after the massacre. (Mindanao Examiner)