Ramon Manliguez was arrested by a police team led by P. Insp. Wilbert Parilla and PO3 Gerry Cue, who saw him with a firearm tucked in his waist inside a taxi they have flagged down during a checkpoint.
Reports said that during questioning, Manliquez told the police that he is a member of the Cebu City Police Office, but failed to say what unit he belongs.
Manliquez also failed to show documents that authorize him to carry the firearm. It was at this point that he called up a friend who later turned out to be PO2 Junicar Estiñoso, the policeman suspended late last year for bringing his girlfriend to a motel on a police patrol car.
When Estiñoso arrived, he reportedly asked Cue to spare his friend since the firearm belongs to him, but Cue only advised Estiñoso to settle the matter with Parilla.
Parilla, however, refused to heed Estiñoso''s request and instead ordered for the arrest of Manliquez, from whose possession the police recovered a .9mm pistol and a magazine with five live ammunitions.
A case for violation of the Commission on Elections gun ban is now being prepared against the suspect, who is now detained at the Camp Sotero Cabahug.
Meanwhile, police arrested a woman along the same street Wednesday afternoon for illegal possession of drugs.
Rosemarie Sanchez, a resident of barangay Lorega-San Miguel, was arrested after the police saw him throw a matchbox to the ground during a checkpoint.
When a policeman took the matchbox, it reportedly contained a small plastic pack of suspected shabu. The suspect tried to run but was cornered by the policemen. - Flor Z. Perolina/LPM