NBI didn't buy guns from firm owned by Purisima’s kin

A company partly owned by the wife and son of suspended Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima has never supplied firearms and ammunition to the National Bureau of Investigation.

 

An NBI official made the remark following a GMA News report showing that firearms supplier JH&A Innovative Manufacturing Corp, which lists Purisima's wife Ma Ramona Lydia Purisima and their son Eumir Von Andrei Purisima as its incorporators, was in the business of making guns and ammunition to be sold to the national police, military and the NBI.

 

In its article of incorporation obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company, which was incorporated on February 7, 2005, stated that its primary purpose was to “manufacture, refurbish, and rebuild quality firearms and ammunition to be sold primarily to the Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), other law enforcement agencies of the government and to local government units.”

 

However, NBI spokesman Nick Suarez confirmed to GMA News Online on Wednesday that the NBI never had any dealings with the controversial firearms firm.

 

"As per records from the NBI, the company being connected with the wife of Gen. Purisima was never a supplier of guns and ammunition," said Suarez.

 

He added that JH&A Corp has "never participated in public biddings this year or in previous years" for the purchase of firearms and ammunition for the NBI.

 

Suarez however could not immediately give the name of the firm currently supplying guns to the NBI.

 

An NBI insider, however, revealed to GMA News Online that Nashe Enterprises, which secured a deal after winning in a public bidding, is currently supplying firearms and ammunition for NBI agents.

 

The insider said that Nashe had been supplying guns to the NBI for "quite some time now."

 

A check with its website revealed that Nashe Enterprises was founded in 1989 by its president Jane Nacisvalencia-Roxas.

 

AFP Chief of Staff General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr had already said that as far as he knows, JH&A has not had any transaction with the AFP.

 

SEC documents showed co-incorporators of JH&A Corp are Alma Ebdane, the wife of former PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., a certain Jonathan Yu and Lilibeth Yu.

 

Alan Purisima signed as witness in the incorporation papers.

 

Purisima was suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman last December over a graft case.

 

License to deal in firearms, parts of firearms, ammunition and gun repair should be secured from the head of PNP. Purisima, an Ilocos Sur-native, became head of the PNP on December 18, 2012.

 

The government procurement law says bidders with relations to the head of the procuring entity within the third civil degree of consanguinity or affinity are automatically disqualified to ink contracts with the said entity.

 

Despite being suspended, reports had it that Purisima called the shots in the covert PNP-Special Action Force operation to arrest Filipino bomb-maker Abdulbasit Usman and Jemaah Islamiyah leader Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

 

The operation ended up in a clash with Moro rebels, leading to the death of 44 elite policemen and 17 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

 

Separate investigations by the Board of Inquiry, the Department of Justice, and even the Senate have been launched due to the alleged "misencounter." —NB, GMA News