Manila - Philippine police raided a house searching for guns Monday in the southern city where 57 people were massacred last week. Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna, a regional police chief, said the raid was conducted at the house of a police officer in Cotabato City, 960 kilometres south of Manila.
Cataluna said the officer was a suspect in the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan town in nearby Maguindanao province, allegedly led by Datu Unsay town Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan Junior, an ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
"We have received information that many firearms were stored there by the Ampatuans," he said. "The house is owned by a police officer."
The raid, however, yielded only one M-16 rifle, 1 rifle grenade, ammunition, gun parts and assorted military uniforms, according to Cataluna.
The government has been severely criticized for its slow action on the massacre. It took four days before Ampatuan Junior was taken into custody by the justice department.
Ampatuan Junior allegedly led a group of more than 100 gunmen who stopped and diverted a convoy ferrying relatives of his political rival and journalists to a hilly area where they were killed.
State prosecutors was set to file multiple charges against Ampatuan Junior on Tuesday.
Eight more relatives of the suspect, including Maguindanao Governor Datu Andal Ampatuan Senior and Autonomous Muslim Region for Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, were also being investigated for complicity in the carnage.
