Jobless man turns over NPA reb’s cache of cal. 60 to Ecija PNP
SAN JOSE CITY — A jobless man surrendered to the authorities here a cache of live cal.60 sub-machine gun ammunition allegedly left to him by a New People’s Army rebel, it was reported.
City police head Lt. Col. Criselda Y. De Guzman said Leo Patricio, 42, of Bgy. Sinipit Bubon, personally appeared at the police station bringing with him some 95 pieces of live cal. 60 ammunition at 8 a.m. Sunday.
Patricio told her that the cache of bullets was left to him by an unnamed NPA rebel, a resident of Sitio Nilagarian, Bgy. Puncan, Carranglan.
De Guzman said she immediately ordered her men to conduct a background check on the said rebel in coordination with the Philippine Army’s 84th Infantry Battalion based in Bgy. Sto. Niňo 2nd here.
The incident occurred as police here reported a total of 168 firearms that were so far recovered, surrendered and deposited for safekeeping in its intensified drive against loose firearms.
Of the total, De Guzman said five firearms were recovered during police operations, 135 for safekeeping and 28 surrendered.
Last Saturday, farmer Ronaldo Reyes, 37, of Bgy. Sto. Niňo 2nd, surrendered a cal. 45 pistol to the station as part of the government’s Balik-Baril program, said De Guzman.
It came amid explicit orders from Chief PNP General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar for all chiefs of police and area commanders to intensify the accounting of all unregistered guns in the country ahead of the 2022 national and local elections..
