Abra official, employee held in anti-weapons raid
CORDILLERA Police Regional Office director, Brigadier General Ronald O. Lee on Monday announced the arrest of an elected public official and a local government employee in Abra for illegal possession of high-powered firearms and ammunition.
“This is part of our ongoing crackdown against partisan armed groups and loose weapons which could be used to commit violence in the forthcoming May 2022 national and local elections,” said the official as he and his men were commended by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar for their latest accomplishment.
Gen. Eleazar earlier ordered an intensified effort to account for loose firearms in the hands of rogue politicians and other armed groups in the country as part of their preparations to ensure a safe and fair 2022 polls.
Lee said that at around 5 a.m. Monday, members of the Cordillera Regional Intelligence Division/Regional Special Operations Group/Regional Drug Enforcement Unit raided the house of Sangguniang Bayan Member George Sotelo in Barangay Narnara in Pilar municipality.
Armed with a search warrant for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act of 2013 issued by Judge Maria Ligaya Itliong-Rivera of the Baguio City Regional Trial Court Branch 5, the Cordillera police team, with the assistance of officers from the Abra Police Provincial Office stormed the residence of the 45-year old Sotelo 5 in the morning.
Lee said that recovered from the public official’s house were an M-1A1 Elisco Baby Armalite rifle with serial number 113054; seven magazines containing 134 rounds of live caliber 5.56 ammunition; one cal. .45 semi-automatic pistol with serial number 11001; three cal. .45 magazines containing 20 bullets; one 9mm Llama pistol with serial number 940296, one Llama 9mm magazine containing five live ammunition; and five Carbine magazines with 13 bullets.
A follow-up raid at the house in Bgy. Narnara of Ferdinand dela Rosa, 40, an employee of the Pilar municipal government led to the confiscation of one 5.56 Hydra M-16 automatic rifle with serial no. 3406162, one M-16 rifle with a defaced serial number and three magazines containing 71 live ammunition.
The official said the raid was also conducted on the basis of another search warrant issued by Judge Itliong-Rivera.
The raiding team led by Major June Tabigo-on arrested the suspects following the conduct of the search which were conducted in the presence of required government witnesses.
Two alternative recording devices were also utilized by the Cordillera police team during the search in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling.
The two suspects are now under the custody of the Cordillera police facing charges for violation of RA 10591.
Lee said that his men are still checking with the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office the records of the high-powered weapons confiscated from the two suspects.
