| Army wants PNP to probe Armscor on ammo find in Maguindanao |
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| by Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews | |
| Sunday, 13 December 2009 07:03 | |
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SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/12 December) -- Army officials said they would ask the Philippine National Police to investigate a top Filipino weapons manufacturer after thousands of rounds of ammunition for M16 and M14 rifles were found in an abandoned militia camp in Shariff Aguak Friday noon.
Lt. Col. Michael Samson, Army public affairs officer, said troops found more than 50 boxes of M16 ammunition hidden in a pit dug beside a militia camp inside a farm owned by Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatua Sr., in Barangay Kuloy, some five kilometres from Shariff Aguak town. He said all of the boxes which contained a thousand bullets each, have markings they were manufactured or distributed by Arms Corporation of the Philippines or Armscor.
“We want the PNP to ask the firm if they sold the ammunition to the Ampatuans because this is a huge quantity, “ Samson said. In its website, Armscor, a Filipino firm, advertised selling low-calibre bullets like .22 but not the military ordnance 5.56mm. Samson said troopers found 50 of these boxes in a pit along with ten barrels of caliber .30 machinegun and another ten barrels of M60 light machinegiun.
Despite their successes, Samson said what they found is less than 50 percent of the total firepower they believe Ampatuan had to arm his CVOs. “We have not even reached fifty percent yet. We believe Ampatuan has about 1,300 armed militiamen, “ he said. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews) Share this story through the following Social Media sites:            |
