ILOILO City – A lawyer of slain suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. surrendered three firearms to the Molo district police.
Atty. Edeljulio Romero turned over the guns to the officers who went to his house in Barangay San Jose, Molo.
They included an M16 with 277 ammunition, a .45 Imbel pistol with 28 ammunitions and a .9mm Taurus pistol.
They were turned over to the Firearms, Explosives, Security Agencies, and Guards Section of the Police Regional Office 6. Their licenses will expire in 2019 yet.
Molo police officers visited Romero around 1 p.m. on Monday as part of Oplan Double Barrel – the Philippine National Police’s campaign against illegal drugs.
Romero was No. 4 in the Molo police’s watch list of suspected drug personalities, said Senior Inspector Marl Cordero, district police chief.
It was the third time that the officers visited Romero’s house since Oplan Double Barrel was launched on July 1, Cordero said.
“He (Cordero) just kept promising us that he would turn over his firearms, until this Monday,” said the police official.
On July 15, Romero — along with Odicta and wife Meriam, son Melvin Jr. and brother-in-law Andro Altas — turned themselves in to Superintendent Salvador Dagoon, Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) intelligence chief.
Atty. Romeo Gerochi accompanied them. After a custodial debriefing and filing of personal data and other documents, they were released.
Sometime in August, ICPO officers led by the director himself, Senior Superintendent Remus Zacharias Canieso, prodded Romero to turn over his firearms.
Romero and the Odictas denied using or trafficking illegal drugs, Dagoon said.
Odicta and wife Meriam were killed by still unidentified assailants on Aug. 29 at the Caticlan Jetty Port in Malay, Aklan./PN
