OPERATIVES of the Police Regional Office–Negros Island Region (PRO-NIR) seized firearms and ammunition during a search warrant operation in Hacienda Hinalinan, Barangay Guimbalaon, Silay City, Negros Occidental on October 8, 2025.
The operation also led to the arrest of a 51-year-old farmer identified only as alias “Tabing,” a resident of the said village.
Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, chief of the PRO-NIR Public Information Office, said operatives of the Silay City Police Station raided the suspect’s house by virtue of a search warrant issued by Judge Dyna Doll Chiongson-Trocio of Regional Trial Court Branch 69, Silay City, for violation of Republic Act 10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
Police recovered from the suspect’s possession one unit of a 12-gauge magazine-fed Shooters shotgun, one magazine, and two rounds of 12-gauge ammunition.
Malong said the operation stemmed from information received by the Silay City Police Station from a confidential informant reporting that the suspect was in possession of a firearm without the necessary documentation.
Acting on the report, intelligence operatives immediately conducted validation and continuous surveillance to confirm the veracity of the information.
Upon verification, an application for a search warrant was filed and subsequently approved on October 2, 2025. The search warrant was successfully implemented on October 8, resulting in the arrest of the suspect and the confiscation of a loose firearm, she added.
Malong noted that the presence of loose firearms poses a constant threat to peace and security.
“PRO-NIR remains resolute in its mission to rid our communities of unlicensed guns that often end up being used in crimes and violence. We will not relent until every illegal firearm is accounted for and those who keep them illegally are brought to justice,” Brigadier General Arnold Thomas Ibay, PRO-NIR director, said.
Ibay urged the public to actively support law enforcement efforts by immediately reporting any individual or group in possession of unregistered or illegal firearms within their communities.
He said public cooperation is vital in dismantling the circulation of loose firearms and ensuring that peace, safety, and the rule of law prevail across the Negros Island Region. (MAP)