MANILA, Philippines - Another mayor of Maguindanao has surrendered firearms to the military following a government drive to recover loose firearms in the province.

Guindulungan Mayor Midpantao Midtimbang on Thursday turned over 3 M16 Armalite rifles, 5 M14 rifles, 7 Carbine rifles and 253 assorted bullets to the Army’s 29th Infantry Battalion (IB).

The turnover was held at the municipal hall of Guindulungan.

“Sumusunod lang tayo kasi maganda man ang layunin ng gobyerno,” said Midtimbang.

Lt. Col Benedict Arevalo, 29th IB commander, said they convinced the mayor to surrender the firearms.

“Kinakausap lang natin sila na maayos na isuko,” said Arevalo.

The Guindulungan mayor is the 4th town chief executive of Maguindanao to cooperate with the national government’s call to surrender loose firearms after the November massacre and the imposition and lifting of martial law in the province.

The other mayors who have cooperated in the campaign to recover loose firearms in the province are from Sultan Sumagka, Datu Anggal Midtmbang, and Talayan,.

Midtimbang is an uncle of a wife of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan.

The ARMM governor is currently detained at a police camp and faces rebellion as well as multiple murder charges in connection with the massacre which claimed the lives of at least 57 people last November 23. His brother, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., is tagged as the principal suspect in the massacre.

In the past week, more than 44 guns and hundreds of assorted ammunition were reported to have been recovered by the Army.

On Thursday, Army’s 33rd IB reportedly found 34 more firearms in Shariff Aguak, capital town of Maguindanao.

“Pursue mandate”

Meanwhile, Director-General Jesus Verzosa, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief paid a visit to the ARMM police headquarters Thursday morning to give awards to some policemen who showed exemplary performance during the Maguindanao crisis.

In his speech during the program, Verzosa emphasized to his men that they should not lose hope in pursuing their mandate to bring peace in Maguindanao and in the whole ARMM.

After the short ceremony, Verzosa immediately proceeded to a conference with ARMM police officials.

The PNP chief said he would like to dig into the root cause of the massacre and study the culture of the perpetrators of the crime. He said he wants to get a clearer answer on why it was committed.

He also said he would also like to study the deployment of police personnel, firearms and vehicles.

On the issue of the alleged extortion by the Ampatuans in the recruitment of police trainees, Verzosa said he has already heard about the report, and he is hoping that a witness would come out and testify. If it is true, he wants those who behind caught and punished.

A Boto Patroller of ABS-CBN News had exposed the alleged practice of giving P300,000 to the Ampatuans so that applicants would be accepted into the region's police force.

Weapons caches

Police on Wednesday showed to media the machine guns, mortars, armored carriers allegedly recovered from weapons and ammunition caches purportedly of the Ampatuans in separate sites in Maguindanao province.

One of those displayed on the grounds of Camp Tambler, Police Region Office-12 (PRO-12) headquarters in General Santos City, was a K3 “Minimi-type” light machine gun.

Based on an witness' account, Verzosa said the machine gun was purportedly used by Andal Jr. to kill some of the victims in the gruesome massacre in Ampatuan town last November 23.

Verzosa said that they are waiting for the results of a ballistic test to determine if the gun was used in the massacre.

The machine gun was allegedly recovered in the vicinity of a mansion of the clan’s patriarch, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., last Tuesday. With reports from Lerio Bompat, ABS-CBN Central Mindanao