Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II directed yesterday the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct another probe on the 1,000 missing firearms of the Philippine National Police (PNP) which had allegedly been sold to the New People’s Army (NPA).
In his order dated January 9, the secretary “directed and granted authority to conduct investigation and case build-up over missing Philippine National Police firearms which were sold to the New People’s Army in Mindanao, and if evidence warrants, to file the appropriate cases against government personnel and private individuals found liable.”
He ordered NBI Director Dante Gierran to “submit a report to the Office of the Secretary of Justice on its current activities related to the implementation of this order.”
Aguirre said he acted upon the directive of President Duterte to get to the bottom of the reported 1,004 missing PNP AK47 rifles allegedly sold to members of the NPA.
He expressed confidence that “those individuals who are responsible for this felonious act will be held liable.”
“We must always remember that as public servants, we are accountable to the people and must discharge our mandate with outmost fidelity and integrity,” he stressed.
Department of Justice (DoJ) spokesperson Undersecretary Erickson Balmes explained that the investigation of the NBI is an off-shoot of the probe conducted by the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) which filed criminal complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Gusto po natin makita ay if may private individuals involved po,” Balmes said. (Jeffrey Damicog)