5 SLAIN...

were fired upon, triggering an hour-long firefight.

“As the team arrived in the village, they were fired at by unidentified gunmen using high-powered firearms,” he said.

With the help of village officials, the police identified the fatalities as Badrudin Masulot Dalid, Arbaya Dalid Panizares (female), Asraf Dalid Masulot, Bunta Kabantu, and a still unidentified male who all died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Following the firefight, the joint police-Army team found more than 440 assorted motorcycles, two M60 machineguns, antitank rocket B-40 launchers, an M14 rifle, an M203 rifle fitted with a grenade launcher, three M16 rifles, a vintage .30 caliber Carbine rifle, two .38 caliber revolvers, and bomb-making components.

The injured police officers were immediately rushed to the hospital in the town proper here.

Police Muhidin Dalaganon Mantok, one of the gunmen, voluntarily surrendered to authorities.

A resident who asked not to be named told reporters that the compound which has a tennis court and a basketball court was owned by a legitimate pawn shop businessperson.

The motorcycles, including firearms, were pawned to the shop, he said, explaining why there was a huge number of motorcycles and vehicles in the area.

But Birrey said an investigation is still going on the report if it was a warehouse for pawned vehicles.

“The presence of highpowered firearms make the area a suspected lair of a lawless group,” she said in the vernacular.

All firearms seized during the raid were unlicensed. Barangay Gukotan is about 20 kilometers south of the town proper. (PNA)