Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Release of firearms used by mutineers sought
PROSECUTORS handling the coup d’etat case of the Magdalo soldiers on Tuesday asked the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) to allow the release of more than 200 high-powered firearms used by the mutinous soldiers when they staged the short-lived 2003 Oakwood mutiny.
In making the manifestation before the sala of Makati RTC-Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel, Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon said the firearms once returned will be used by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in its clash with rogue members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"The people recognize that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is in dire need of these weapons and ordnance. As early as July 2004, these object evidence were already identified, marked, and photographed," Fadullon said.
Fadullon heads the prosecution panel in the coup trial of the Magdalo soldiers that include former Navy officer now Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
According to the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Office (Jago), the confiscated weapons can be used in the ongoing AFP campaign against the MILF in Central Mindanao.
“The release of the cache of firearms will not affect the ongoing defense of the accused as these have already been marked as evidence and stored in a compact disc for use in the court proceedings,” Fadullon added.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the petition in behalf of Colonel Gilberto Jose Roa of Jago, who had asked the department to work for the release of the firearms seized from the rebel soldiers upon their surrender on the night of July 27, 2003.
The weapons remain stored at the Ordnance Warehouse, Supply Center Compound of the Army Support Command (Ascom) in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.
In an inventory Roa sent to the DOJ, the firearms, numbering 231, included 108 M-16A1 Armalite rifles, 38 7.62mm M-14 rifles, and eight M653 Colt Commando rifles, shortened version of the US-made M-16A1s.
There are also 13 sniper rifles in both calibers 5.56mm and 7.62mm, LMG (light machine gun) M240 and M-60, a bazooka-like Light Antitank Weapon (LAW), submachine guns, grenade launchers, and assorted pistols.
The recognized Oakwood mutiny, as it is now called, was launched on the dawn of July 27, 2003, by 321 armed soldiers calling themselves Magdalo, in reference to the Magdalo faction of the Katipunan during the Philippine revolution.
The soldiers occupied the then Oakwood Premier Hotel (now Ascot) in Makati for 19 hours as their leaders, mostly young junior officers, called for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other government and military officials whom they had accused of corruption and irregularities.
But the mutineers later laid down their arms and peacefully surrendered.
Trillanes and 30 other officers were arrested and charged with coup d’etat. Nine of them confessed to the crime and were sentenced up to 40 years in prison, but were subsequently pardoned by the President. (AH/Sunnex)
