PAOCTF corners vessel with high-powered firearms

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Marine soldiers and crack elements of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) intercepted Friday cache of high powered firearms aboard a motor launch anchored in the wharf of Jolo, Sulu.

Brig. Gen. Orlando Buenaventura, 3rd Marine Brigade commander, based in Jolo said the raiding team recovered 6 M-16 Armalite rifles and one 50mm caliber machine-gun at about 11:11 a.m. Friday aboard M/L Carmelita.

Buenaventura said the arms cache was concealed among sacks of goods. The raid was launched following a tip that arms shipment was expected to arrive in Jolo.

Buenaventura said they are still investigating as to whom were the firearms consigned since the escort of the firearms abandoned the shipment after sensing the raiding Marines and PAOCTF elements.

He said the loads of weapon came from this city and they are still looking to what was the motive of the shipment.

There were intelligence reports that the arms were consigned to a political warload in preparation for the forthcoming elections, however, this could not be confirmed.

Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa directed the Marines and military troops to continue their campaign to prevent the entry of arms shipments.

Earlier, the military revealed the arms shipments of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was expected to be unloaded in the shorelines of Central Mindanao.

The weapons, consisting of rockets ammunition and assorted high powered firearms, reportedly came from Cambodia on board an unidentified foreign vessel.

However, the MILF repeatedly denied the allegations saying that they manufactured their own weapons inside their camps. --