Marquez' .45 caliber pistol lost in Iloilo airport
The irony of all ironies, a .45 caliber pistol owned by a top official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) here was lost in a fully-secured government building.
As such, this public advisory and appeal to return the missing sidearm of Captain Lowen Gil Marquez, commanding officer of the AFP's 3rd Civil Relations Unit.
Described as Armscor, high-capacity Black colored .45 caliber with extended White barrel, Captain Marquez admitted on the major oversight from his end.
Yet with seven days of non-stop relief operations and deprived of sleep thereafter, Captain Marquez said he forgot to retrieve his government-issued firearm.
He was certain though to have left it on the upper window in one of the restrooms of the Airport Control Tower about 7:30 a.m. Monday.
"My firearm is my number one "wife" and if it's away from me, I become an easier target for liquidation of terrorists," Captain Marquez said. "Hindi ko na napansin na naiwan ko kase nga medyo nasobrahan na sa pagod and medyo nahihilo na rin tayo sa isang linggong' walang tulog (I did not notice anymore that I left it because I was already too tired and was feeling dizzy for lack of sleep in the past week)."
Captain Marquez was in the forefront of relief operations by the AFP and visiting American forces and personally supervised loading and unloading to the landing zones in affected Iloilo towns and provinces of Capiz and Aklan.
"Sana maibalik (I'm hoping that it would be returned)," he ended.