COTABATO CITY — A policewoman and her boyfriend who is an Army corporal both landed in jail for selling firearms in Pigcawayan town, Cotabato province on Saturday afternoon.
Busted by police cover agents in an entrapment were Patrolwoman Irish L. Emoy, 28, and Corporal Jaafar D. Sabturaon, 33, now both in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
Lt. Col. Ariel T. Huesca, regional chief of CIDG-BAR, said on Sunday that Ms. Emoy and Mr. Sabturaon were arrested as they sold a .45-caliber pistol and M16 rifle for P100,000 in a sting staged in Barangay Tubon, Pigcawayan.
Brig. Gen. Prexy D. Tanggawohn, Bangsamoro police director, said they will be charged with illegal possession and sale of firearms.
Their arrest came a day after soldiers seized two M16 assault rifles, a grenade launcher and a machinegun left by local terrorists while fleeing from Barangay Kakar in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.
Major Gen. Alex S. Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Sunday that the military-type firearms were left by suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiya when they sensed that patrolling personnel of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion were approaching their location in Barangay Kakar.
One of the weapons that soldiers found along the escape route of the terrorists is a crew-served .30-caliber machinegun.
Mr. Rillera said soldiers under the 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion under the 601st Infantry Brigade are tightly guarding Barangay Kakar and nearby villages in Datu Odin Sinsuat against an outbreak of gunbattles. “Everything is being done to prevent them from coming back,” Mr. Rillera said. — John Felix M. Unson
