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Weapons galore
THE MAUTE group appears to have an inexhaustible supply of firearms, according to the military. But not just the Maute. The Abu Sayyaf, too. And the war lords in Mindanao.
There have been suspicions in past years that high-powered firearms and thousands of ammunitions of gunrunners supplying terrorists and war lords in Mindanao were government-issued and manufactured by the Government Arsenal of the Department of National Defense (DND). The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) should get to the bottom of this.
This is a very serious matter. If it is true that the high-powered firearms being used by terrorists to kill our soldiers and kidnap civilians are being supplied by our own government arsenal, then the AFP and the DND are equally responsible for the mess we are in when it comes to our problem with the Maute group, Abu Sayyaf and warlords in Mindanao.
Remember what happened last year? Last September, an alleged leader of a gunrunning syndicate was arrested at a house in Barangay West Crame in San Juan City, a stone’s throw away from the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame. The suspect was reportedly one of the major arms dealers of the Abu Sayyaf and political warlords in Mindanao.
A month before the arrest, this suspect and several unidentified Abu Sayyaf members reportedly went to Manila to buy a cache of M203 grenade launchers and M14 rifles, explosives components, and thousands of ammunition. They were reportedly sent by an unidentified Abu Sayyaf commander.
Is there a possibility that people involved in the operations of the DND’s Government Arsenal plant in Bataan, or those who are with the AFP’s Logistics Command, are sneaking out weapons and ammunition to sell them to arms dealers? Yes, it’s not easy to sneak out thousands of ammunitions and high-powered without being detected during inventory, but this is a fair question and has to be asked.
A check on the Government Arsenal’s civilian and military personnel, particularly those who have access on the defense articles that are being produced in their plant in Bataan, would be a commonsensical move, too.
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