MANILA – Still unidentified persons launched grenade attacks on the mansions of members of a powerful and influential clan allegedly involved in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao on November 23, police reported Monday.
Superintendent Alex Lenesis, the Maguindanao provincial police director, said nobody was reported wounded in the attacks staged late Sunday night but these set off panic among the residents living near the area.
Lenesis said that based on initial findings, an M-79 grenade launcher was used to mount the attacks, first at the mansion of the clan patriarch, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, which is located in the capital town of Shariff Aguak.
The second attack, Lenesis said, targeted the mansion of Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town, the son and namesake of the patriarch who has been accused by the police of masterminding the massacre.
Lenesis said that at about 10 pm Sunday, the suspects, who have yet to be identified, fired a grenade from the launcher which landed and damaged the mosque near the mansion of Ampatuan patriarch.
Minutes later, another attack was launched, this time on the mansion of Mayor Ampatuan inside the same compound, Lenesis said.
However, he said the attack appears to have misfired with the grenade landing near a gasoline station immediately outside the mayor’s mansion.
Lenesis said the attacks could have been carried out by members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who have been at odds with the Ampatuans.
The MILF, which has resumed peace talks with the government, has yet to comment on the claim of Lenesis.
However, another member of the clan, Mayor Jack Ampatuan of Raja Buayan town also in Maguindanao, claimed the attacks could have been launched by criminal elements whose attempts to rob his mansion also in Shariff Aguak have been foiled.
Jack Ampatuan revealed that on several occasions, suspected robbers tried to enter his mansion but were foiled by the timely arrival of policemen and soldiers.
Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), is still under a state of emergency as declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo along with the province of Sultan Kudarat, also of ARMM, and neighboring Cotabato City which hosts the ARMM regional government.
On December 4, President Arroyo imposed martial law in Maguindanao as a result of the massacre but withdrew it a week later, with emergency rule still in effect.
In a related development, police announced the arrest of a suspect who was alleged to have participated in the bombing of the house of Maguindanao Congressman Didagen Dilangalen in Cotabato City on December 27.
Police said the suspect, identified as Nasser Kadil Beda, was arrested two days after the explosion but this was announced only Saturday.
Police explained they did not want to preempt the follow-up operations that could lead to the arrest of other suspects.
According to the police, Beda admitted he received the equivalent of $150 in cash to serve as a lookout while the other suspects planted the powerful bomb at the front gate of the Dilangalen mansion.
Dilangalen is reportedly a relative of the Ampatuans, along with another Maguindanao congressman – Simeon Datumanong, also the former secretary of the Department of Justice in the Arroyo Cabinet.
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