By CYRUS M. GARDE
BACOLOD City — Charges for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition have been filed against the president of Rotary Club Bacolod–South yesterday.
The high-powered firearms and bullets seized from the house that Eugene Angelo Gawat rents in No. 85 San Carlos West Ave., Sta. Clara Subdivision, Brgy. Banago here, were illegal, said Chief Supt. Josephus Angan, police regional director.
Gawat, the alleged owner, was charged with violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition before the City Prosecutor’s Office here. He remains at large as of press time.
A nurse by profession, Gawat was renting the house owned by a certain Benjamin Jalandoni.
All 21 firearms and boxes of ammunition had undergone three tests at the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office crime laboratory, Angan said.
“Firearms and ammunition have corresponding records at the Firearm and Explosive Unit in Camp Crame,” Angan said. “With the filing of charges, it is understood [that the items seized in the raid were] illegal.”
Armed with a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 51 Judge Anita Guanzon–Chua, Regional Intelligence Unit operatives swooped down on the house rented by Gawat on June 25. Gawat was not around during the raid.
Operatives recovered from a Toyota Hi-Ace van (plate number BDW 122) 16 AK-47 rifles, 125 empty magazines, boxes of assorted live ammunition, 25 jungle knives, 26 leather magazine pouches, and 25 cleaning kits.
They also found in Gawat’s room 60 assorted ammunition, and in another room, a steel cabinet containing two long-barrel shotguns, a .30-caliber rifle and two .45-caliber pistols./PN
