CABANATUAN CITY – A 30 year-old jobless man and a teen-aged student were the first to be apprehended for violation of Commission on Elections Resolution 9561 which provides for ban on carrying firearms and deadly weapons in Nueva Ecija in the first day of its imposition on Sunday.
Supt. Ricardo Villanueva, commander of the Nueva Ecija police’s provincial public safety company, identified the suspects as Fernamdo Alvarez, a resident of Purok 1, San Vicente, Llanera town, and Ireneo Palma, 18, of Purok 2, Barangay Bagong Buhay, Palayan City.
Villanueva said Alvarez was apprehended at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday by PPSC operatives in a Comelec checkpoint in Dimasalang Norte, Talavera while “transporting” a short firearm with five live bullets.
Palma on the other was on board a tricycle driven by a 15-year-old student, carrying 16-inch bolo at about 10 p.m. when accosted by PPSC elements in Barangay Bagong Buhay.
Charges for violation of the Omnibus Election Code were being filed against the suspects, Villanueva said.
The PPSC has recovered at least 20 firearms of different kinds since the Regional Special Operations Tasked Group was created last Dec. 10, 2012.
Villanueva said the arrests and confiscations were a result of anti-criminality checkpoints and implementation of search warrants.
On January 8, police recovered five assorted firearms from a certain Rodelio Mariano,38, of Barangay Calangcuasan Norte, Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija.
The guns included one AK-47 assault rifle, one M-16 Colt rifle, one 12-gauge shotgun, one cal. 45 pistol, one cal. 9mm and one cal. 22 magnum. He also yielded 123 rounds of bullets for cal. 9mm and 125 for cal. 45.
Mariano was able to present licenses for the guns but Villanueva said they are now subject for verification.
