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Friday, January 28, 2005
Palace ‘asset’ nabbed for guns
By Oscar C. Pineda
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Another asset of the Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force (PAIRTF) was arrested by Lapu-Lapu City policemen for illegal possession of firearms.
At a checkpoint in Barangay Mactan Tuesday night, Insp. Alejandro Vidal and SPO1 Rene Dignos of the Special Weapons and Tactics team arrested Wilmer Cahentong Capunong, 30, a PAIRTF asset, for possessing a .45 pistol with bullets.
Capunong showed a memorandum receipt for the gun, issued by Deputy Regional Director Cecilio Garcia and property custodian Marilyn Bandolon.
But Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Louie Oppus said this is irregular because memorandum receipts are only issued to “organic members” of a law enforcement unit, not to civilians.
IDs seized
Aside from the gun, police also confiscated a PAIRTF ID bearing the signature of Reynaldo Haylo, and an airport managers’ pass signed by Marcelino Cordova, acting manager of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority.
Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, chief of the PNP Firearms and Explosives Security Agencies and Guards Supervisory Section 7, stressed that he is not questioning the status of the presidential task force.
He said that based on the provisions of Presidential Decree 1866, or the firearms possession law, mission orders and memorandum receipts are issued only to appointed or regular members of a law enforcement unit.
If one is not a regular member, he must be part of a mission, which has a specific duration, Lawas said.
Lawas stressed that the issued firearms must be an “organic property” of the issuing unit.
He said the highest commander, including the detachment commander of the PNP and the army, can issue mission orders to their regular men. But the mission orders are valid only within the jurisdiction of the issuing official.
The concerned gun-holder has to coordinate with the local police should he go outside the jurisdiction of his boss, Lawas noted.
The police earlier arrested an asset of the Military Intelligence Group 7 for possession of gun and ammunition in Lapu-Lapu City. (OCP)
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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