MANILA, Philippines – Allegations that the powerful Ampatuan clan was involved in rigging election results and maybe preparing for another round of fraud and cheating in the May 2010 elections became stronger after election materials were discovered by police at the back of the house of one of their key members.

While troops and police were looking for more arms and ammunition allegedly hidden by the Ampatuans in Maguindanao province on Wednesday, thousands of voters‘ identification cards were found at the back of the house of Shariff Aguak Mayor Anwar Ampatuan.

Police said they were securing the area of the house of Anwar, son of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., when they found almost 3,000 voters’ IDs and other election materials.

The elections materials, including the voters’ IDs, were found partially burned.

"Obvious naman na susunugin. Hindi lang ngayon naman sunog ito eh, mukhang matagal na ito," said Senior Superintendent Alfonso Pagkaliwanagan, Regional Mobile Group chief for Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Pagkaliwanagan said the election documents appear to be original. He said he does not know why the materials were with Shariff Aguak mayor.

"Sa tingin ko original ito, pero tinawagan namin iyong SOCO [Scene-of-the-Crime Office] para ma-determine kung original ito o hindi. Mahalaga ito sa pulitika natin, bakit may ganito? Election paraphernalia ito pero bakit may ganito tayo?" said Pagkaliwanagan while sifting through the documents discovered.

The Shariff Aguak mayor is a brother of Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. who was tagged as the principal suspect in the gruesome election-related massacre last November 23. The grisly killings claimed the lives of at least 57 persons.

Anwar was arrested the day after martial law was declared in Maguindanao province and detained for several days at a military camp in Cotabato.

The justice department on Wednesday filed rebellion charges to a court against 5 members of the powerful Ampatuan family, including Anwar, and 19 of their followers for allegedly taking arms to fight the Philippine government.

Anwar, along with 2 brothers who were also arrested, were also transferred to a police facility in General Santos City on Wednesday where another brother, ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan has been detained.

Comelec: Only poll officer can handle IDs

Meanwhile, Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez said that only the election officer should be then one keeping the voters’ identification cards once released by the poll body’s head office.

Jimenez said that local officials should not handle any of the election materials.

The Comelec official said 95% of the voters’ IDs of those who have registered in 2007 have been released already.

He said the poll body would investigate if the election materials are authentic.

“I also have to find out if the voters’ ID are authentic nga talaga SOCO will probably coordinate with the Comelec. And if I were doing it, the first thing that I would do is to request the Comelec for a specimen of an authentic voter’s ID and then base the comparison from there,” said Jimenez in a phone interview.

The materials found at the back of the Anwar’s were taken by police to their office for analysis by investigators and experts.

The Ampatuans have been accused of engineering widespread electoral fraud and cheating in the province, allegedly not only for their benefit, but also for President Arroyo in 2004 and for the administration bets in the 2007 senatorial elections.

Maguindanao gave the critical votes to Mrs. Arroyo in the 2004 presidential election. Some 194,000 votes from the province were supposed to have been cast for Arroyo as against her closest rival’s (movie star Fernando Poe, Jr.) 60,000. In all, she garnered 555,000 from the ARMM compared to Poe’s 273,000.

In 2007, Maguindanao gave a 12-0 sweep for the administration’s Team Unity (TU) even if its slate suffered major setbacks in the whole country.

From being a staunch ally, however, the Ampatuans, after the massacre have been tagged as allegedly leading an “armed popular uprising” against the government and members of their so-called private army are now called “rebels.”

The administration has termed their “rebellious actions” as basis for the martial law declaration and suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in most parts of Maguindanao.With a report from Nickee Butlangan