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Thursday, August 17, 2017

Cops unearth buried firearms in Marawi


Police who returned to Marawi City were able to recover the firearms they buried more than two months ago while leaving the area with five civilian construction workers.

According to a report on Unang Balita by Chino Gaston, the cops' service firearms were recovered in Barangay Moncado Kadilingan.

The policemen could not believe the guns were still intact after being underground for more than two months.

When the Maute-ISIS group staged attacks in Marawi City on May 23, five policemen were trapped in Central Marawi.

They said they held their position inside a house in Central Marawi for 22 days from the start of the fighting with the Maute group.

Police Officer 3 Ricky Alawi said they were with a Christian policeman and five civilian construction workers in that house.

Members of Maute-ISIS attempted to enter the house several times but they introduced themselves as Muslims.

Police Officer 1 Ibrahim Wahab said there was a time when one member of the terror group attempted to barge into the house, so he threatened to shoot him.

The cops said they would fire their guns only one at a time so as not to immediately use up their bullets, which were not many.

When they received a text message from government soldiers that the military will start airstrikes, the policemen decided to escape with the construction workers.

They first changed into civilian clothes and buried the firearms underground so as not to catch the attention of Maute snipers or be mistakenly identified by the military as Maute supporters.

The five cops and the five construction workers were rescued by government troopers on June 13 after they left the house.

ARMM director Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac earlier identified the rescued officers as Police Officer 3 Ricky S. Alawi, 46; Police Officer 1 Ibrahim P. Wahab, 32; Police Officer 1 Lumna B. Lidasan, 44; Police Officer 1Esmael M. Adao, 34; and Police Officer 1 Bernard A. Villaries, 52.

The construction workers were earlier identified as Jeneber Velasques, 26; Rodel Alico, 24; Jerald Docallos, 16; Mateo Velasques, 33; Analices Mari, 32, all construction workers from Panadtaran, Gumagamot, Lala, Lanao del Norte.

The recovered firearms, although still intact, may not be serviceable, however.

Some were burned due to airstrikes while some turned rusty.

Senior Superintendent John Guyguyon, officer-in-charge of the Police Provincial Office in Lanao del Sur, said it was a good thing the cops buried the firearms. Otherwise, the Maute-ISIS group would have been able to use them. —KG, GMA News

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