Couple held for selling guns, ammo to extremists

MANILA, Philippines — A couple accused of selling firearms and ammunition allegedly from the military to extremist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf and Maute were arrested in Valenzuela City on Sunday.

Edgardo Medel, 46, and his wife Rosemarie, 34, who are from Gapan, Nueva Ecija, are facing charges of violating Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday ordered a thorough probe of the case.

“We’ll investigate how these ammo ended up in the wrong hands,” he said in a text message.

Police arrested the couple in an entrapment operation at a gasoline station along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in Barangay Canumay West at around 6:30 p.m.

The suspects were apprehended after they sold firearms and ammunition to a policeman posing as a buyer in exchange for P1.2 million.

The confiscated arms cache consisted of two assault rifles, a handgun and 12,893 rounds of ammunition for M-60 light machine guns and M-16 assault rifles recovered inside a Mitsubishi L300 van (REV-675).

The bullets were inside military crates with lot and serial numbers, according to police.

“I just cannot imagine the death and destruction that will result should these war materials fall into the hands of the New People’s Army, Abu Sayyaf Group and terror groups,” Albayalde said in a news briefing at Camp Crame.

Probers are zeroing in on a retired Army soldier said to have supplied the couple with smuggled weapons in the past two years. Aside from rebel groups, the suspects’ clients also included unscrupulous politicians, police said.

Director Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said the alleged supplier used to be based in Fort Magsaysay in Palayan, Nueva Ecija, the home of the Army 7th Infantry Division.

Eleazar said the suspects have been transacting with an inmate at the Metro Manila District Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City for firearms that ended up in the hands of rebel groups in Mindanao.

Albayalde said the possibility that weapons from the military are being used by rebel groups should be a cause for concern for AFP officials. He added it is impossible for the suspects to have manufactured the bullets on their own.  – With Jaime Laude