Army’s 7ID probes personnel on 'link' to gun running

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 18): Army’s 7ID probes personnel on 'link' to gun running

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija -- The Philippine Army's 7th Infantry "Kaugnay" Division sees the investigation on alleged link of any of its personnel to a gun running activity as an opportunity to cleanse its rank.

Col. Eugenio Julio Osias IV, 7ID spokesman, said on Tuesday that Major Gen. Felimon Santos, Jr., the division commander, welcomed the investigation after the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported that the 12,893 rounds of bullets recovered from a suspected gun running couple in Gapan City, this province might have been sourced from Fort Ramon Magsaysay.

He said the probe will "really help us to weed out (wayward cops) if ever".

Osias noted, however, that they run a huge military reservation with several tenant units, including the Special Operations Command (Socom), Special Forces (SF), Light Reaction Regiment (LRR), Army Artillery Regiment (AAR) and Aviation Battalion.

The 7ID, he said, has coordinated with the respective commanders of these units.

"We are investigating it, in collaboration with the intelligence unit of the PNP and we are checking the lot number of the bullets,” Osias said in an interview.

By checking the lot numbers, he explained, probers will know where the ammunition came from and to what unit these were issued.

Osias noted, however, that the firearms also recovered from the suspects did not come from any unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as per report relayed "by the higher headquarters".

"These are commercial firearms which were found outside," Osias said, referring to those recovered from Edgrado and Rosemarie Medel of Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, in an entrapment operation in Valenzuela City last Sunday.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1056977