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ZAMBOANGA
CITY—Senator
Rodolfo Biazon said he will call for an investigation to
determine how “hostile forces” have managed to acquire
the same type of armaments as the military.
Biazon,
who visited the wake of the 14 Marines killed in Basilan,
said he will also ask for an investigation why mortar
shells issued to the Marines turned out to be duds.
Biazon,
a former Marines commandant and Armed Forces chief of
staff, said he was informed that the troops observed
“that the enemy or hostile forces” had the same type of
mortars as those of the Marines.
He
revealed the government usually purchases both local and
imported mortar shells for the military.
He said
the imported mortar shells are painted gold while
locally manufactured shells are blue-colored.
He said
there is a need to determine who the manufacturer of the
locally made mortar is and to determine what the
requirements in the sale of their product are.
“What I
cannot understand is how they [manufacturers] sell
because according to the troops, they already have
noticed that even the hostile forces, the enemy forces,
are in possession of these locally manufactured shells,”
Biazon said.
He added
all the armaments issued to the troops that are found to
be defective should be recalled and replaced.
The
Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) will formally
request the Joint Committee on Cease-fire and Cessation
of Hostilities to compel the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) to return the firearms they seized from the
Marines who were killed in Basilan.
The
Wesmincom chief, Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, said the MILF
should return the 16 high-powered firearms that the
rebels seized from the Marines in Tuesday’s clash in
barangay Ginanta, Al-Barka town (not Tipo-Tipo as
earlier reported) in compliance with the cease-fire’s
terms of reference. |
