MANILA - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will not order the disarmament of the Ampatuans despite the political family's alleged involvement in the kidnapping and gruesome killing of at least 24 people in Maguindanao, an Islamic studies professor said Tuesday.

"It [gov't] is beholden to the support, especially during election time, from people like [the] Ampatuans," Julkipli Wadi, University of the Philippines’ Islamic Studies professor, told ANC mornings.

Wadi said the Arroyo administration does not have "enough political will" to disarm the Ampatuans, which the government should have done a long time ago to prevent election-related violence in Maguindanao.

"I just don't know how deep is the relationship... Maguindanao provides substantial votes that it could actually tilt the balance of opposing parties especially at the latter part of the counting of ballots," the professor said when asked to describe the relationship between the Ampatuans and President Arroyo.

He added that it is public knowledge that Mrs. Arroyo's political party, Lakas-Kampi-CMD, is close to the Ampatuan political clan.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said in a radio dzMM interview that the Philippine National Police (PNP) is anticipating an escalation of violence between the opposing clans of the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus due to Monday's killings.

Brawner said the police and the military are looking into the possibility of disarming members of both families to prevent further violence.

PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina assured that with the help of the military, policemen can disarm the Ampatuans, as well as the members of the Mangudadatu family.

Espina said Philippine National Police chief Jesus Verzosa flew to the province to oversee pursuit operations. He said the PNP has also deployed additional policemen to the province for peace and order operations.

At least 24 bodies of more than 40 kidnap victims, including the wife and relatives of Buluan town Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu, a gubernatorial aspirant in Maguindanao, were recovered by troops of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province Monday afternoon.

The mutilated bodies were recovered in Sitio Masalay, Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town.

Majority of the victims were women, and there were indications that they have been raped and "played with" before being killed, police and relatives of the victims said.

Mangudadatu said his wife, Genalyn, and their relatives were on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao province on his behalf when a group of about 100 armed men abducted them.

Reports said the armed men were led by Mayor Datu Unsay Ampatuan and the provincial police director, Chief Inspector Zukarno Adil Dicay.