PO2 Ephraim Mejia, one of the 44 Special Action Force troops killed in clash with Moro rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, January 25, 2015. (Photo courtesy of the Philippine National Police)
KORONADAL CITY — Police authorities in Central Mindanao on Wednesday said the physical and macro-etching examination of a rifle recovered from the son of a police officer in Pikit, North Cotabato, showed that the firearm belonged to one of the fallen Special Action Force troopers in a clash with
Moro rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, in January 2015.
The firearm, said Supt. Romeo Gaglgo Jr., information chief of the Central Mindanao Regional Police Office, was more known as Ferfrans cal. 5.56mm rifle with defaced serial numbers. Its new serial number was “FF 090465.”
Citing an inventory of lost firearms with accessories submitted to PNP National Headquarters in relation to the Mamasapano clash, the rifle was issued to PO2 Ephraim Mejia, one of the fatalities in the Mamasapano encounter in which 44 SAF members were slaughtered.
The SAF troopers killed an Indonesian terrorist – Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan.
On Oct. 11, the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (RAIDSOTF), led by Supt. Maximo Sebastian Jr., conducted joint operations in Pikit, North Cotabato with the military and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA 12) agents that led to the arrest of Nasser Karim, son of Senior Insp. Sindatu Karim, the town’s deputy police chief.
A poster showing the photographs of the 44 Special Action Force troops killed by Moro rebels in an encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on January 25, 2015. Inset photo shows then president Benigno Aquino III who ordered the covert operations to kill terrorist bomber Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, that led to a fatal encounter with the members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
Assorted high powered guns and ammunition, including rifle grenades from Karim and the rifle that was issued to one of the fallen SAF 44, were recovered from Nasser’s home.
“This means some of the firearms of SAF 44 are still in the hands of private individuals,” Galgo said.
The elder Karim stressed that his son kept guns because he had been receiving death threats.
“He just wanted to protect himself from unknown enemies,” said Karim, who has since been relieved and reassigned to the police regional office in General Santos City.
Karim did not say how his son obtained the rifle that was issued to SAF or whether he knew the SAF rifle was in his son’s possession. SFM