PNP. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The high-powered firearms that President Aquino said had ended up in the hands of paramilitary groups and private security agencies did not come from the police force but may have been imported into the country, the Philippine National Police said on Monday.
“We’re checking on who imported those firearms. In fact, we don’t know yet if there was really such an incident,” said Deputy Director General Felipe Rojas Jr., PNP deputy chief for administration.
The Inquirer reported Sunday that President Aquino had claimed that over 900 high-powered firearms had been transferred from the police to private hands.
“But taking the word of the President, we will investigate it… we’re trying to trace who imported the guns and what groups received them,” Rojas said.
He said a team of investigators from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Firearms and Explosives Office, and the Civil Security Group had been assigned to look into the information given by the President.
In a dinner with Inquirer editors and staff last week, Aquino said a PNP unit based in Camp Crame, the PNP’s national headquarters in Quezon City, was under investigation for supposedly releasing some 900 high-powered firearms to several private groups.
Aquino said the guns were mostly AK-47 and M16 assault rifles which “were not meant for the recipients.”
Rojas said it was highly improbable the firearms had come from a PNP unit, given that the PNP did not have AK-47s, a Russian-made assault rifle, in its armory.
He said the PNP conducts an inventory of the service firearms in the hands of its personnel every three months.
“This is to ensure the service firearms of PNP members are not being sold to private individuals,” Rojas said.
Asked if the loss of the firearms was not alarming, he said: “If you consider the figures, it’s alarming. But we still have to determine if it’s true.”