ZAMBOANGA CITY – Government troops searching for more weapons of the Ampatuan family in Maguindanao have found another cache of high-powered firearms and ammunition hidden in a warehouse in Barangay San Sebastian in Shariff Aguak town last Wednesday, authorities said.

The find includes brand new shoulder-fired recoilless rifle (RR) projectiles that can stop tanks and armored personnel carriers and an estimated P.5 million worth of live mortar rounds hidden at the warehouse believed owned by the Ampatuans, according to Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara, 6th Infantry Division chief.

Alcantara said government troops raided the warehouse after receiving a tip from a civilian. He said the raiders had to tear down a portion of the facility’s concrete wall to enable them to enter the building.

Alcantara said the mortar rounds and shoulder-fired 57mm and 90mm RR projectiles were still intact in their sealed containers, neatly piled on one side of the warehouse along with several vehicles.

Alcantara said Army ordnance operatives, backed by a canine unit using dogs trained to detect hidden explosives and firearms, are still scouring several areas in Shariff Aguak and surrounding towns for more weapons.

"As I have told you before, we are still to unearth more firearms and ammunition. We were told we are yet to reach half of the total Ampatuan firepower," Alcantara said.

Since Martial Law was declared in Maguindanao Friday night, state forces have recovered around 700 high-powered firearms after they dug around Shariff Aguak and nearby towns.

Government troops meanwhile continue their massive hunt for the head of a security force suspected of keeping some firearms used in the November 23 massacre of 57 people in Barangay Salman in Ampatuan town.

Alcantara said the object of the hunt, Macapagal Kamendan, is chief of security in the 32-hectare regional government compound of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Cotabato City.

Alcantara said he ordered the manhunt for Kamendan after they recovered last Tuesday 20 firearms belonging to Kamendan’s group hidden in a newly-constructed septic tank behind the Regional Telecommunications Office inside the ARMM compound.

“The firearms are all high powered and are not the kind ordinary guards use to protect government and private properties,” Alcantara said.

Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu, chief of the police-led anti-crime Task Force 12 Alpha in Central Mindanao, said investigators will file charges against Kamendan, the trusted bodyguard of former Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr., patriarch of the Ampatuan clan.

Kamendan and Senior Insp. Saudi Mokamad, another keeper of firearms used in the massacre, have in their custody about a hundred firearms, officials said.

Mokamad was among those at the checkpoint where gunmen, allegedly led by now detained Datu Unsay town Mayor Datu Andal Ampatuan, Jr., flagged down the convoy carrying the massacre victims, more than 30 of them journalists.

Witnesses said Mayor Ampatuan and his men herded the convoy into a nearby hill, ordered the victims to disembark and executed them one after another.

Police said they are also looking into reports that some of the firearms used are owned by police and military personnel assigned in Maguindanao.

“There were actually a number of firearms previously issued to police stations and other units in Maguindanao that had been declared missing so we’re checking if any of those missing units were among those recovered from the Ampatuans,” Khu said.

Khu said the verification is necessary after confirming that the M-16 rifle seized from a member of the Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO) in Ampatuan town is owned by the Philippine National Police. The gun was among those allegedly used in the massacre.