Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff General Gregorio Pio Catapang on Monday denied speculations that the military has turned over to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) the firearms of some of the injured and slain Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) troopers.
In a press conference at the Villamor Airbase, Catapang vehemently denied a portion of the PNP Board of Inquiry (BOI) report released last Thursday that said some of the firearms that the surviving members of the PNP SAF gave to the military's Division Reconnaissance Company (DRC) shortly after the police commandos were rescued on Jan. 25 ended up in the hands of the MILF.
“First of all we are denying it. We do not take properties. That’s a violation, and knowing that this is a very sensitive issue we will not do that. Sino naman ang gagawa nun na, baril yan. Just like a wife, the rifle is our wife, so we do not desecrate our rifles,” Catapang said.
On page 40 to 41 of the PNP-BOI report, it noted that some of the 16 firearms turnover by the MILF to the government on February 17 have been tampered.
“Upon initial inspection, police officials observed that the bolt assemblies of eight rifles were no longer the original parts. The barrel of one of the machine guns bears no serial number. Officials noted that the weapons had been tampered with,” the report said. The report added that the accessories attached to most of the riffles were also missing.
The BOI report went on into saying that one police commando, PO2 Rommel Magno turnover his rifle and the riffles of his fallen comrades to a member of the military's DRC shortly after he was recued as he was severely injured.
“Since Magno was seriously injured, he handed his rifle, as well as the rifles of the dead Seaborne Commandos to a member of the DRC. When Magno's rifle was returned, its GL M203 grenade launcher was missing. Surprisingly, Magno's rifle was among the firearms turned over by the MILF-CCCH to the GPH-CCCH. This meant that the firearms got into the hands of the Moro rebels when it should have been under the protection of the AFP troops,” the BOI report read.
The BOI said a similar incident also happened to the rifle another police commando, a certain PO2 Acob, who also turnover his firearms to the DRC.
It was, however, not identified in the report the DRC members to whom Magno and Acob turned over the rifles.
Catapang said President Benigno Aquino III has already talked to him about that portion of the BOI report and the latter ordered him to investigate the matter.
“We will formally investigate it and then submit the report to the secretary of National Defense and hopefully it will be forwarded to the President,” Catapang said.
Catapang said that while the AFP finds some of the findings of the BOI report to be “good”, there are some things that the AFP “have to comment on”.
“There are things we will reinforce or say that these are good findings but in as much as there are allegations against the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we are prepared to answer all those issues,” Catapang said.
Asked on whether he disagrees with some of the findings of the BOI report, Catapang candidly said “yes”.
“Oo, especially yung tungkol sa sinasabi ninyo na may mga parts na napunta from AFP to MILF. I think we have to look into this because this is an allegation that we do not believe has been done by us,” Catapang said.
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