POLICE seized P4.5 million worth of smuggled gun parts and accessories for high-powered firearms from two suspected smugglers in Bacolod City, who said the weapons were to be used to assassinate President Rodrigo Duterte.
Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa identified the two suspects as Allan Taala and Wilford Palma, who admitted that their client had told them the guns would be used to kill the President.
“One customer that planned to order several lower-end gun parts said [these] will be used for the assassination of Duterte,” Palma said when presented by Dela Rosa during a briefing at Camp Crame Thursday.
He said he could not remember the client’s name, but said he had ordered gun parts from him in the past.
Dela Rosa said he could not yet say if Palma were a member of a gun-for-hire syndicate or just an errand boy. Investigators are still validating claim, he added.
The gun parts the client had ordered, Palma said, include more than 100 upper receivers, 40 barrels and 30 bolt assemblies for 100 M16 rifles. He said at least 10 boxes of cargo containing gun parts have been shipped into the country in the last two years.
Aside from Palma and Taala, 23 others, including nine who voluntarily surrendered said they were willing to cooperate with the police investigation of the gun running operation.
A total of 15 gun parts composed of seven upper receivers, a butt, a handgrip, two magazine assemblies, and four bolt assemblies were surrendered and received by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Taala and Palma, both from Bacolod City, were arrested by detectives of CIDG in a police operation against loose firearms at Atlas, Villa Cristina Subdivision, Barangay Tangub, Bacolod City, on Aug. 6.
A case was filed against the suspects for violation of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act. Palma underwent the inquest proceedings before the State Prosecutor’s Office at the Justice Department in Manila on Aug. 8.
Dela Rosa said the suspects used fictitious names and false documents when claiming the packages with the contraband of different firearms component parts which are bought in the US, and shipped to the country through the use of legitimate international cargo forwarders. The items are then sold to gun enthusiasts across the country, which are then shipped to customers using local courier services.
Palma said there were previous deliveries from the US, which were facilitated through Atlas Shippers International Inc., involving the delivery of 104 different major component parts for the 5.56 caliber rifle; and 298 minor component parts for the 5.56 rifle, accessories, and bullet-proof vests, which were all delivered on different occasions to 129 people and one company across the country.
Records of the Firearms and Explosives Office-Records Section showed that 28 of those who received deliveries were registered firearms holders, 30 had no records in the database, while 12 could not be identified because they had the same names but different middle names.
A Palace official said Thursday that death threats would not deter President Duterte in his war against drugs, crime and terrorism.
“Death threats are nothing new for President Duterte. He eats death threats for breakfast,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said during a press briefing in Malacañang.
The Palace official said that “the threats against Duterte are expected due to the unrelenting war he has waged against many fronts upon his assumption in office.”
Chief among them is his relentless war against illegal drugs—a war which reportedly earned Duterte a P50 million bounty put up by drug gangs for his head.
The ongoing war against the extremist Abu Sayyaf group—a terror group with Islamic State links that is operating in the hinterlands of Sulu and Basilan— is another possible threat to Duterte’s life, he said.
Despite all these, Malacañang said Duterte remains unfazed.
“He is well aware that his life is constantly under threat.. [but] the President seems to be pretty much untouched by all these threats. He is not worried,” the presidential spokesman said. With PNA