ILOILO City – Three separate operations under the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) on Wednesday, September 25, resulted to the recovery of several firearms and ammunition across the province.
Through the strength of a search warrant, officers of the Tigbauan Municipal Police Station (MPS) raided the house of alias “Dino,”25, in the town’s Barangay Bagacay around 5:42 a.m.
Police said the subject was not present during the raid but they confiscated ammunition for calibers .38 revolver and .45 pistol.
Two hours later, personnel of the Badiangan MPS arrested alias “Renato,” 67, and a resident of the town’s Barangay Catubig.
They also recovered one caliber .38 revolver, six rounds of ammunition of caliber .38, one homemade 12-gauge shotgun, four rounds of ammunition of 12-gauge shotgun, and one magazine inside the suspect’s house.
The third operation at around 8:50 a.m. was carried out by the Banate MPS in Barangay Dela Paz.
Police caught alias “Tito,” 59, and seized a homemade 12-gauge shotgun and an improvised air gun.
The two arrested suspects are now under police custody. They will be charged for violation of Republic Act 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act).
IPPO director Colonel Bayani Razalan said last week he ordered all police chiefs to intensify their operations against persons who possessed unlicensed guns.
“These operations were the result of our intensified operations against loose firearms. Nag-conduct kami ng pulong-pulong sa mga barangays to inform the gun holders to process their expired licenses at sa mga may homemade firearms to surrender or deposit to the nearest police station,” Razalan said.
For his part, Police Regional Office 6 director Brigadier General Jack Wanky commended the IPPO’s successful operations.
“We recognized the effort of IPPO in this campaign and this will lessen the occurrence of crime involving firearms. Also, we commend the support of the community to our local police for being vigilant in their respective locality and for providing information to the police,” Wanky said./PN
