AMPATUAN, Maguindanao del Sur—Local authorities appealed to residents to help them convince a man, who had apparently taken a valuable item from the wreck of the aircraft that crashed on a rice field here on Thursday.
Sultan Datu Ali Camino, a former vice-mayor of nearby Datu Abdullah Sangki town and a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in this town showed a photograph of the man carrying a black bag, ostensibly looted from the plane crash wreck.
Camino even posted on social media the man’s picture showing a black bag loot, apparently with a long shoulder belt slung on his shoulder.
“If I were you, friend, I will surrender that bag. See US soldiers are not pulling out from here, apparently looking for an important item. Whoever you are, your face would eventually surface in a police sketch,” the MNLF leader wrote in the vernacular in a Facebook post.
A former village chair Suraida Ampatuan-Mamaluba also appealed on social media to anyone who may have known the man in the picture to persuade him to turn over the bag to authorities, because “it is not good to take that which does not belong to you.”
Ampatuan is the niece of the late former Philippine Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong.
The US Embassy in Manila earlier confirmed that there were no survivors in the plane crash on Thursday afternoon. US authorities said “the cause of the crash is currently under investigation.”
Earlier, Amer Jehad Ambolodto—one of the rescuers and head of the provincial disaster risk-reduction council—also said that apparently there were no signs of life in the plane wreck.
A female lactating water buffalo, which happened to be in the crash-site was also fatally injured, with its jaw and nasal bones hit and cut probably by a fast-turning plane propeller.
The US Embassy said the aircraft “was providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support at the request of our Philippine allies. The incident occurred during a routine mission in support of US-Philippine security cooperation activities.”
“We can confirm no survivors of the crash. There were four personnel on board, including one US military service member and three defense contractors,” said the US Embassy statement.
The embassy said that the private plane was “contracted by the US Department of Defense.”
The ill-fated aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 300 with tail registration number N349CA was earlier reported to have been chartered by the US Indo-Pacific Command when it fell off a rice field in Barangay Malatimon, Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur in the afternoon of February 6.
The names of the crew are being withheld pending next of kin notification.