PUBLIC URGED
Surrender, register
loose firearms: PNP

The Philippine National Police yesterday called on the public to surrender and register loose firearms with the police under the ongoing gun amnesty of the government, Bacolod City Police Office director Senior Supt. Ronilo Quebrar said.

Quebrar issued the statement citing an executive order that allows owners of loose guns to surrender their firearms and apply for licenses with the PNP, without legal sanctions from June 14, 2007 to June 13, 2008. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 585 to effect another gun amnesty as the government recorded about 304,262 loose firearms nationwide despite the implementation of two such programs in 2003 and 2004, PNP records showed.

Arroyo issued the order in December 2006 but its implementation was postponed because of the 2007 May elections, Quebrar said.

The EO provides that the public can surrender and register low and high-powered firearms to city, provincial, and regional police offices without legal charges provided that they get permits to transport the guns from their homes to the PNP stations.

It states that there is a P2,000 fee for the registration of low-powered guns and P3,000 for high-powered ones.

The order on the other hand, said that homemade guns would not be registered and will be confiscated by the police as they are not made by legal firearm manufacturers.*PP

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Drug pusher apprehended

A 20-year-old resident was arrested by the police for allegedly peddling drugs in a buy-bust operation in Bacolod City Monday, the Philippine National Police said.

Ryan Agantal had just accepted the P100 bill that an agent paid for two sachets of shabu when Bacolod City Police Office Drug Enforcement Unit operatives moved in and arrested him in an eatery at Lopez Jaena Street, Bacolod City at about 1:45 p.m., the police said.

Agantal resisted and stabbed the officers with a knife, slightly injuring some of them and himself, but he was later subdued, police records showed.

The operatives also recovered the marked money, two elongated plastic sachets of suspected shabu, and the double-bladed knife from him, police reports said.

Agantal, who is from Purok Fatima, Brgy. 31, Bacolod City, however, said that he was just requested by a friend he refused to identify to give the sachets to the buyer in exchange for a P5,000 reward.

He added that the sachets actually contained "tawas" and not shabu and that he does not sell the illegal substance.

Agantal also said that he just resisted arrest because he was shocked and denied that he stabbed the DEU operatives.

The police said, however, that they will file charges for violations of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, City Ordinance 358 or illegal Possession of a deadly weapon, and resistance and disobedience to all agent of a person in authority, against Agantal.*PP

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2 collared for
frustrated murder raps

Two frustrated murder suspects were arrested by joint operatives of the Silay City and Negros Occidental Police Provincial offices, recently, a press release from the Silay PNP station said.

The suspects were identified as Steve Esparagoza and Sandro Moje.

Esparagoza was collared by the Warrant and Subpoena Section of the Silay City PNP led by SP01 Mateo Requintina, with Intelligence Branch of NOPPO led by SP01 Mariano Marcelino and an operative of the Army.

The suspect, 26, married, is a resident of Had Puyas I, Brgy Bagtic, in Silay. He has a pending warrant of arrest issued by Judge Felipe Banzon for frustrated murder, with a bail bond of P200,000 and for the crime of slight physical injuries under Judge Antonio Jayobo of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities of Silay. Also arrested was Esparagoza's companion identified as Sandro Moje, whose bail bond was set at the same amount, the press release said.

The suspects are now detained at the Silay Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, the press release added.*

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