MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 29, 2014) -The Philippine military has ordered an investigation into a US report linking a Filipino army officer into a gun smuggling ring with an American senator, but the government is silent over allegations that it is secretly funding Moro rebel groups in Mindanao to distract public attention from its own corruption scandals.
US authorities have arrested Senator Leland Yee (Democrat, San Francisco) for firearms trafficking and corruption charges. The report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Yee had dealings with an army captain and that the Philippines has been funding secretly some of the rebel groups in an effort to create a distraction away from corruption within the government.
The report did not which rebel groups the government has been funding, but the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has already denied any links to Yee.
Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte she spoke with military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala who said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is is already looking into this report.
“We have also been trying to get a name or at least more information about the alleged involvement of a supposed military officer,” she said.
Valte said there is still no significant information produced by the ongoing investigation. She did not say anything about the allegations that the government is secretly funding rebel groups in Mindanao.
US federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Yee, accusing him of conspiring to commit wire fraud and traffic firearms. At least 25 other people, including Raymond Chow, alleged to be the head of a Chinese organized crime syndicate in the US, were also arrested in connection to the charges.
Yee was released on $500,000 bond and declined to comment on the case.
It was not the first time that a military officer was linked to illegal arms sales, but there had been allegations in the past that some rouge commanders were illegal selling government weapons to the MILF, the Abu Sayyaf and even politicians and war lords.
It was also for the same reason why soldiers had previously staged coup d’etat against the government. Some soldiers even accused their commanders of ordering them to blow up mosques and Catholic churches in Mindanao and stir up a religious war, but they refused. (Mindanao Examiner)
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