AFP denies confiscated firearms came from its stocks

The Armed Forces of the Philippines denied on Tuesday that it was the source of the high-powered firearms confiscated from a couple on Sunday, but said it was still checking if the ammunition—some bearing AFP serial numbers—indeed came from its stocks.

“While we can already confirm that the firearms are not [from] our inventory, only a thorough inventory of our ammunition will confirm whether there are losses in our stocks that could have fallen to the hands of these gunrunners,” Col. Noel Detoyato, AFP Public Affairs chief, said in a statement.

Couple arrested

Director General Oscar Albayalde, the Philippine National Police chief, on Monday announced the arrest of Edgardo and Rosemarie Medel, residents of Gapan, Nueva Ecija, and the confiscation of P1.2-million worth of firearms and ammunition from them.

National Capital Region Police Office operatives arrested the Medels in a buy-bust at a gasoline service station along the North Luzon Expressway.

Confiscated from the couple were two assault rifles, a handgun and 12,893 rounds of ammunition for M60 light machine guns and M16 assault rifles.

The Medels, according to the police, cater to threat groups and private armed groups in Mindanao.

The guns and ammunition were in crates with serial numbers identifying them as property of the Philippine Army.

Some of the ammunition boxes had serial numbers that were already traced to an Army unit, Albayalde said.

He said the Medels admitted to dealing with a retired soldier from Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, headquarters of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division.