EDITORIAL - Arms traffickers

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation recently arrested several individuals led by a California senator on charges of corruption and involvement in a gang plot to smuggle weapons from the Philippines to the United States. The arms deal was meant to raise campaign funds for US Democratic Sen. Leland Yee, and the weapons were supposed to be sourced from a captain in the Philippine Army as well as separatist elements in Mindanao.

Since the arms deal did not push through, that Army captain might never be uncovered even if identified by some of those implicated in the plot. It’s also possible that the captain was just an invention of some of those arrested. This, however, should not stop the Armed Forces of the Philippines from looking into its procedures for procurement and inventory of weaponry.

This is not the first time that AFP members have been linked to arms trafficking. There have been reports in the past of Islamic separatists and even Abu Sayyaf bandits buying weapons from crooked elements in the AFP.

Before signing a peace deal with the government, members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were often photographed brandishing high-powered weapons including shoulder-fired missiles. It would be interesting to find out where the MILF, which will lay down its arms under the peace deal, obtained its weapons. Most of the weapons were believed to have come from foreign sources, but it’s not unlikely that some were sourced locally.

Military personnel who become part of politicians’ private armies can also be used as facilitators for arms trafficking. The government has yet to establish how crates of firearms with markings of the Department of National Defense were found stockpiled in the mansions of the Ampatuan clan in Maguindanao.

The AFP must keep a tight inventory of weapons issued to its members. Soldiers who have retired or gone AWOL have been arrested with government-issued firearms in robberies and other criminal activities. National armed forces are not in the business of weapons trafficking, but some of their members may not be aware of this. These rogues must be weeded out and a tighter watch kept on military weaponry.