Slain shooter's cache 'could arm a battalion'

MANILA, Philippines - Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. has ordered the three major military services to conduct an inventory of their weapons to determine the source of a cache of firearms found in the Malabon warehouse of slain Philippine practical shooting team member Michael Lontoc.

“The surrendered items could arm a battalion of soldiers,” a military intelligence officer said of the arms cache found in Lontoc’s warehouse.

Military insiders told The STAR that the cache was surrendered to the Philippine National Police (PNP) by an associate of Lontoc days after he was killed in an ambush in Malabon last Sept. 25.

According to reports reaching Oban, the surrendered items include 15 hand grenades, four 60mm mortars and 120 rounds; an 81mm mortar and 24 rounds; 2,200 rounds of ammunition for a .50 caliber machinegun; and five pounds of trinitrotoluene with at least three meters of detonating cord.

In issuing this directive to the Philippine Army, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and the Philippine Navy, Oban wanted to know whether the seized armaments came from the AFP’s armory or were smuggled into the country.

Sources said the PAF and the Navy reported that the weapons recovered from Lontoc’s warehouse are not from their armory while the Army has yet to submit their report on the issue not later than this week.

The Military Intelligence Group 17 (MIG) are pursuing a coup angle but sources said Oban is inclined toward the gun smuggling angle, which is also being eyed by police investigators from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

The military report did not name the associate who surrendered the arms cache to the PNP but stressed that the NCRPO is in the thick of its investigation into the shooter’s killing.

Earlier, NCRPO chief Director Alan Purisima claimed that Lontoc was killed because he reportedly “shortchanged” a syndicate of the proceeds of the weapons he sold.

The military source claimed that several members of the gun smuggling syndicate called up Lontoc’s associate to “turn over” the arms cache to them days after the shooter was killed. The associate turned the weapons over to the PNP instead, triggering a joint police and military investigation of Lontoc’s case.